In Pursuit of Imperfection

work programming imperfect work

№: 25

241.2022

It seems, at least to me, that there is this urge, a vengeful pursuit towards cleaning up the corners and crevices of what we produce. We want it to be this little egg that never gets spoilt — stuck in time. Even in programming, there's nothing sweeter than getting something done. Yet, it's never really done and once it's commited, it's privy to enter such an imperfect system that includes other developers, the business' changing needs, evolving technologies. And yet — this very fact becomes so present and true everyday that nothing else seems like its meant to last. Why, one may ask, is it a thing for an engineer to be pumped up to start a new job only to switch in about two years? For the experience? To become a multifaceted problem-solver only to want so badly that one to two year sabbatical that promises insight into the ether.

Why should we write tests? Why should we refactor? Why should we write documentation? The answers to such questions are easy to bullet point and yet, I see in them a pursuit of some kind of impact. Because we don't do each of these tasks out of pleasure — as some would like to claim, but out of desiring that (a) our code “feel” perfect and immutable or on a more altruistic sense that (b) our efforts might help someone understand why we wrote the code the way we did.

In a sense, it helps to understand that our efforts may or may not matter. Yet, it's we keep adding, giving even though we may not know if it will be received or not. We move on, start something here, pick up something else there and wander in pursuit of imperfection, adding our own, because that's unmistakably what remains when we leave.