Acknowledgement Those that knew me earliest in my career would call me a liar, to them I say I’m sorry, and eternally grateful for reviewing my mega-patches; it’s a testament to your thorough reviews that we didn’t break anything too severe! ...
We’re often faced with - what feel like - insurmountable problems; complexity can be daunting, leaving us paralysed by the irrational need to have a perfect solution before even writing any code. Over the years, I’ve gravitated to creating patches in a style that I term “progressive coding” where I iterate on small - atomic - pieces of functionality, with the understanding that solutions rarely emerge fully formed. I don’t believe it’s about being lazy, or settling for something that “works”1 it’s about recognising that programming - like life - is iterative. By breaking down large problems into small, manageable, chunks we progress forward at a consistent rate. ...