Restarting a Project from Scratch !

March 8, 2010

Why Programmers Want to Start Over

Have you ever felt the urge to scrap your code and rewrite it from scratch? If so, you’re not alone. Many programmers have this temptation, and there’s a hidden reason behind it. The reason is not that the old code is bad, but that it’s hard to understand. There’s a fundamental principle of programming that explains this: Reading code is harder than writing it. This is why reusing code is so challenging. This is why every developer on your team has their own favorite way of splitting strings into arrays. They create their own function because it’s more enjoyable and simpler than learning how the existing one works.