The Virtue of Laziness
What makes a good software developer? Problem-solving ability? Technical skills? A logical mindset? I would contend it’s laziness.
This may sound weird, perhaps even offensive, but bear with me.
Something I’ve come to realize is that what separates good developers from the bad is not necessarily their skills or knowledge — these are things that can be learned and improved upon — but how they go about their daily work. Bad developers get stuck in routines, doing the same thing over and over and never change how they work, or even question it (“this is how we’ve always done it”).
Good developers question the status quo, continuously re-evaluate how they work, and above all they automate things. Any time I realize I’m doing the same manual process for a second or third time, I make an effort to automate it — typically by writing a script. Why? A number of reasons:
- If I write a script it means the task will be performed exactly the same way every time, removing human-factor mistakes and providing consistency. This is particularly helpful in stressful situations. Of course, my script may be buggy, but at least it will be consistently buggy, and I can always fix it.
- People seriously underestimate how much time they waste every day doing repetitive manual tasks. Writing a few scripts could end up saving you…
