This is an excerpt from a private chat with someone about code and I think it expresses something universal about programming, mathematics and engineering or any discipline where iterative development is necessary to manage complexity and discover simplicity.
…about a bit of code where I haven’t quite grasped what needs to happen, or the core essence of what problem the computer is actually solving for me (because this is sometimes distinct from the real world or abstract world where the problem really exists) — and so my code is convoluted and annoying and I can’t figure out how to untangle it without lots of extra complexity.
— Me, just now
And then one day I make a change to the way the data is represented (it usually manifests with a data representation change, not always, but usually) and I refactor the code to accommodate that and… VOILA! It just sorts itself out and I find all these ways to simplify and it all makes so much sense.
That kind of code, especially if it is functional, is sort of annoying for people to read sometimes. They look at the code and see this elegant solution that tightly represents the program in a novel way and think “Ah, this is great. I should learn FP!” and then when they themselves tackle a difficult problem they don’t understand the nature of and start writing their own ball of mud they go back and look at that elegant, ideal example that inspired their current task and suddenly feel like a child looking up at the roof of the Sistine Chapel wondering how the hell Michelangelo managed to paint all that with a 12-meter-long paint brush.
They’ve never seen or imagined all the scaffolding that was once in place.
I am quoting myself above, but it doesn’t really matter who wrote it. This expression came out well and I thought it was worth saving somewhere the world can see it (still following Joe Armstrong’s admonishment that I should publish and share too much and let search engines and individuals sort things out).