The Curse of Knowing How (or: Fixing Everything)

A nuanced reflection on the cognitive urge to fix everything in programming and when it's healthier to leave things imperfect.

  • Programming as Self‑Soothing: Writing tools or scripts often serves as a coping mechanism when one's life feels overwhelming
  • Illusion of Control: A key insight is that “programming lures us into believing we can control the outside events,” but that belief can become a source of suffering
  • Recognizing the Urge to Fix: Engineers frequently feel compelled to refactor or improve not just code, but their external circumstances—sometimes driven by internal discomfort rather than necessity
  • Learning to Let Go: “The hardest thing you’ll ever learn is when to leave [things] broken,” highlighting the importance of distinguishing between productive work and unnecessary perfectionism
  • Human Skill of Acceptance: Embracing imperfection is framed as a profound personal and professional growth area—arguably the most human skill in software craft

The full post is available here.