Chesterton's true lesson

You've heard of Chesterton's fence yes? When you see bad code DONT DELETE! It might serve a purpose you don't realize.

But there's a deeper lesson most engineers miss: Once you understand why the code is there do delete. It might serve a purpose that's no longer necessary!

Engineering is about simplification. Your time polishing an unnecessary step of the process is wasted. Delete the damn step.

In a growing company, your needs change all the time. The brilliant life-saving code from 6 months ago may be completely obsolete today.

Cheers,
~Swizec