For the good of the company

One of the guys I met at my new job, when I pointed out that the software he’d developed lacked a shred of documentation and was impossible for new developers to manage, complained that requests always came to him as urgent, and so he quickly produced code—patching things up, not documenting or commenting, and neglecting privacy and security aspects—for the good of the company. Damn, for the good of the company!

You’re doing good for the company when, in addition to writing code, you document it. When you keep track of what you do, when you structure your project and ensure its continuity for future generations. When you pay attention to user privacy and information security. When you test it before pushing it, properly managing errors. When you think long-term and not about the task to be completed by tomorrow.

Only when you take your time and do things right, not when you immediately respond by building a shitty Jenga game, are you doing good for the company.

If you want your colleagues (present and future) to be grateful for your legacy, write sustainable, secure, and valuable solutions. Don’t just slap on lines of code that, whether you like it or not, will eventually come unstuck.