[matwood]

> Understand why a fence was put there before you tear it down.

I'm using this line from now on. As a senior dev with a lot of experience I find myself often being the only one questioning the tear it down mentality. Everyone wants to write greenfield code, and instead of taking the time to understand why current code looks like it is a mess people just want to start over. IMO, no one sets out to make a mess. A mess occurs are compromises are made to add new functionality and catch corner cases. I'm also fine tearing down a fence only after someone can tell my why it was put there and why it can down be torn down (and also how it can be rebuilt in some improved manner).