Comment by actinium226
5 years ago
I agree with having empathy for future devs, but I think it only goes so far. I've often seen junior engineers unable to differentiate between code they don't understand and bad code.
Usually they end up thinking they can do a better job, decide to rewrite the thing from scratch, and take 10x longer to rewrite it than they thought it would take. And accomplish nothing in the end, because the thing they rewrote worked in the first place.
Indeed, and during rewriting they realize why the original code was made that way and how it solves the problem more efficiently than their rewrite.
if they get to that point I’d say it was worth their time!
Yeah this is the best argument for rewrites. Rewrite what your group no longer understands.