Why Judgment-Based Software Advice Matters More Than Coding Rules

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Software advice broadly falls into two categories: practical rules like 'write small functions' and judgment-based principles that require interpretation based on context. Practical advice is easy to teach, verify, and enforce through linters and code reviews, making it widely adopted early in developers' careers. Judgment-based advice, such as 'the wrong abstraction is more costly than duplication,' offers no clear checklist and demands experience to apply correctly. The danger of relying solely on practical rules is conflating adherence to good practices with actually becoming a skilled engineer. Deeper software wisdom only becomes truly useful after a developer has lived through both the successes and failures that give abstract principles real meaning.

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