To everyone but that guy

Fig 1. Internet Jesus

It took many hours (read: seconds) of research to discover who Internet Jesus actually is. We can assume that the advice you are about to receive does not apply to Him, and Him alone.

It's Friday today, and I thought I would take some time to share with you something we try to do at my place of work; probably the best use of Friday's you have ever heard of.

Refactoring Friday

During the week, we carefully stitch, or recklessly smash together code; we are getting our job done. We've ticked off our tasks and moved on.

Except for Him, we all make mistakes, and we could all make good use of another hour on every task we have ever completed.

Soon, the intricate knowledge of what you have done this week will be gone from memory. In a surprisingly short amount of time, you will come across code you wrote this week and wonder why the world is the way it is, you will pray for a better world.

If you work in a shop with a million developers, or you work on your own. I encourage you to ask whoever calls the shots to leave Friday alone.

Make Refactoring Friday a thing; before every week ends, allow yourself to revisit the tasks you have completed and just ask the following questions:

• Have I violated any internal standards ?
• Have I violated any good programming practices ?
• Could this code be improved ?

 If you can't honestly answer no to all of those questions, your code needs to be refactored; right now, while the intricate knowledge still has a chance of being in place, is the best time to do it.

Amen.