There's Nothing so Permanent...

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I recently have a Software Engineer buddy of mine reach out about some code I wrote about 6 years ago. You see, I’d left a comment in that code to the effect of “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned”. And my buddy couldn’t figure out why I’d left that comment.

For my part, I had a good laugh remembering that moment. At the time, I felt the code in question was rather hacky. I sensed that there was a better, or ‘proper’ way to build that function. But in the moment, I couldn’t figure it out. With time running out for the sprint, I wrapped it in some tests. Then I dropped an apology for whatever future developer had to come back and fix my work. I was certain it was going to cause problems in the future. But my buddy had only tagged me because he thought it was funny. He didn’t need to fix it. He found it while preparing to fix another part of the code!

This whole incident brought to mind a point from the Effective Executive by Drucker.

There is nothing so permanent as the temporary.

Drucker observed that many ‘temporary’ fixes end up becoming permanent fixtures. The pressure for daily delivery, and the demands on our attention almost ensure it. When I first read it, I thought it was a cautionary statement. Make sure your ‘temporary’ fix is solid , because it will become permanent! Looking back, I begin to question my original interpretation.

That piece of 6 year old code was solid. My ‘imperfect’ solution was actually sufficient. Even after 6 years of operation, that ‘hack’ served customers well. So was it a ‘hack’? Or a pragmatic solution? I learned two thing from this:

• My ‘temporary’ solution had indeed become permanent.
• My perspective on the ‘proper approach’ was wrong.

Now Drucker’s context still argues caution in ‘temporary’ solutions. Organizational change is hard after all. But this experience highlights the need to critically evaluate … well, how we judge our solutions-to-be. With this in mind, I plan to take a harder look what I call ‘proper’. Though I’m sure I’ve already peppered my future with a few more hacky ahem pragmatic solutions.