[_benj]

I was recently given a legacy project to work on. Two things happened, I made at least one big mistake that took 4 people and 3 days to fix on production. Second, I realized that I had a very strong resistance to reading somebody else’s code.

When I was forced to in order to correct my mistake I realized that reading the code would have been so much easier to begin with, and even exciting… kind of like a puzzle to be solved.

Trying to understand a project, starting with main, arguments, env variables all the way down to the part your are interested in gives SO MUCH insight not only into the project but into the company and their process.

Code don’t lie. It’s a hurdle to get past but understanding the project as a whole give so much insight (i. e. edge cases, hacks used in the past, etc.) and confidence when fixing a specific problem.