Tidy Up First — Software Design at Personal Level¶

Thin but profound — a developer's manual. Taking over or collaborating on projects tempts you to smooth some code sections, yet new requirements keep arriving.

Part One teaches foundational tactics echoing Clean Code principles: delete unused code, write self-explanatory code or comments, decompose code, DRY (don't repeat yourself). Focus: help future you or maintainers understand code better, enabling changes even without full context.

Part Two covers management: attitudes and rhythm for maintaining or PRing. Separate behavior from structure to reduce code reviewer load. Some maintenance needn't happen (code staying unchanged) or can wait.

Part Three: theory, tying to economics. A software engineer's core value is output helping others. If optimization is beautiful but time-consuming, and the product retires before finishing, economic benefit decides. Once viewing code through benefit lens, you often accomplish more with less effort, focusing on meaningful work.

engineering¶