Your predecessor was not blessed with infinite time

Our theories of metaphysics and the afterlife notwithstanding, those who came before us did not have the gift of infinite time or unwavering foresight when they created their libraries, languages, algorithms, patterns and on and on.

When it comes down to developing our tactics as we approach a new problem set, we may see a lot of existing code, and the temptation to copy, paste, tweak, repeat is real and very tempting.

What makes you so convinced that all is as it should be? That the person who approached this problem prior had all the information? Or even that they even necessarily had more information than you have gathered?

Have you gathered information? Because it is not going to do much good for you or those around you if you code with imitation as your sole strategy. There's going to be a lot of confused explanations and blank stares in your future if you do so.

Everything I say is based on experience. There are no saints here.

Now I need to remember to go back and re-read this, again and again, whenever I start a new project that has anything to do with even a shred or vestige of languages and libraries that existed before my time, i.e. every project to date.