When I decided to work in the field where I’m now, I constantly told myself: Whenever the flow drives me in a direction that is boring, I’ll stop and turn.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a personal experience, but if there is a need for reducing repetition, alarm bells go off for me. While routine builds trust,annoying repetition might lead to early stages of burnout.

No project is the same. Sometimes you need to (or actually should) stay lean and starting with a blank slate is certainly the best point for keeping it concise. On the other hand if you see yourself developing a giant platform you probably have to be even more careful about the structure and relying on something someone sometimes thought of, might not be the best approach.

Last but not least no industry changes as often and as fast as ours. Best practices change, APIs change, libraries change, versions change. Old code might break, future code might be fine without it. Long story short: It’s almost never the same thing at all.

A good friend of mine — Emil Berliner, who is musician — lives in the world of electronic music. Almost every single piece that comes out of that corner at least has a Four-to-the-floor bassdrum. I asked him if he has something like a basic template when he starts writing a new track.

Even though the rough structure of every track remains the same, he always starts completely new. He tells me: “If I always start the same, I probably always end the same. Of course I automatically leave my mark on everything I do, it’s something you can’t (or don’t want to) avoid. Starting off blank everytime ensures my work is developing over time and makes room for new ideas.”