Comment by csours
5 hours ago
This sounds like torture (as written).
Of course, working in a legacy codebase is also torture.
Software development is a hyper-rational endeavor, so we don't often talk about feelings. This article also does not talk much about feelings.
Reading between the lines, it looks like reverting the code is supposed to affect how you feel about the work. Knowing that failure is an explicit option can help to set an expectation; however, without a mature understanding of failure, that expectation may just be misery.
With a mature understanding of failure, the possibility of a forced rollback should help you "let go" of those changes. It's like starting a day of painting or drawing with one that you force yourself to throw away; or a writing session with a silly page.
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If someone thinks that they are giving you good advice, but it sounds terrible, then maybe they are expecting you to do some more work to realize the value of that advice.
If you are giving someone advice and they push back, maybe you are implying some extra work or expectations that you have not actually said out loud.
Advice is plagued by the tacit knowledge problem.
Maybe it is the framing of the step as a "reversion" or "roll-back" rather than "spike" or "prototype" that is causing that sense. Personally, I would never throw away the code I spent time and effort writing just to stick to a systematized refactoring method like this "Mikado." I don't think the advice is unsound, and I have done exactly this many times in my own career, but instead of throwing it away I would shelve it, put it in a branch, write a document about what has been/needs to be done, and write a corresponding tech debt or feature/fix ticket for it with the new and realistic estimate.