The labels you attach to yourself
Before, I labeled myself as a craftsman. One who writes code in beautiful prose. This is good but it’ll take me a lot of code revisions in order to arrive at something that I can be happy with. The problem is—deliverables getting delayed—not good.
I then changed my label to pragmatist. One who get shit done in a pragmatic way. This has helped me remove my attachment to my code and just do what is necessary to solve the problem in a direct way, without overly complicating things, in a minimal amount of time but this has left a hole in my soul as a programmer. It feels like I am just grinding.
I always considered myself as a journeyman, like in the ancient times. The one who wanders off learning, taking time to deepen his skills. It’s our identity as a programmer—learning, solving and building stuff.
Being pragmatist killed that. It looks like there are no silver bullets.
Watching this scene in Game of Thrones made me realize that I don’t have to choose between a craftsman or a pragmatist but instead become a hybrid.
You don’t have to choose. You are a Greyjoy and a Stark.
It means, if time is not a constraint then we can indulge in our code beautifying it or else just get that shit done!