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Strong opinions, held for years, quietly abandoned. This is a list of things I used to believe and don’t anymore. Compiled languages are safer than interpreted ones I came up writing Java, and Java taught me that correctness was the compiler’s job. If it built, it was probably right; if it didn’t, the compiler told me where I’d gone wrong. That felt like safety. It took me years to notice it was mostly a crutch, as I learned to lean on the toolchain when I didn’t know the language well enough to reason in the language itself. ...

I’ve started listening to Maintainable, and one of Robby’s standard questions is whether you’re on Team Refactor or Team Rewrite. I’m on Team Refactor. The best way to achieve a rewrite is through a series of incremental refactors. So it’s a little awkward to admit that the best refactor I ever shipped started as a rewrite. The two aren’t opposites. Done right, the rewrite is the thing that buys you the right to refactor. And a looming deadline is the best excuse you’ll ever get to start early. ...