To write good code, you sometimes have to write bad code

This content originally appeared on Lea Verou’s blog and was authored by Lea Verou

And I’m not referring to learning.

For example, yesterday I was trying to write code for something and it ended up beng harder than I expected. It’s one of those rare cases where you can fully imagine how the solution should work, enough to tell it to another person, but you can’t put your thoughts to code and you feel you’re not smart enough.

I find that in those cases, it helps a lot to open a new editor window and try to write code that just works. Without being elegant, fast or maintainable. Just something that works properly. And after you manage to put your thoughts into (bad) code, it’s easy to refine it from there and end up with good code.

Just don’t stop at the bad code, like many beginners do. It’s like when designers sketch a rough draft for a logo, before drawing the digital version. Could you imagine how horrible it would be if they wanted to stop there and give the rough sketches to the client instead? :)

This content originally appeared on Lea Verou’s blog and was authored by Lea Verou

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