Programming mantras are proverbs
I believe that many of the arguments we have around software development practices could be avoided by the simple understanding that all of our mantras need to be understood as proverbs and not laws.
It means it’s fine that we quote Knuth saying premature optimization is the root of all evil, while also believing that Performance is a Feature.
All of these don’t involve logical contradictions. Proverbs encapsulate a small bit of wisdom in a pithy phrase, but you still need to learn to apply that wisdom correctly.
Good proverbs are also supposed to make you think. They slow you down before leap into something that is likely to be bad, or they help you reflect on what did go wrong.
The second step, when you’ve had multiple failed interactions with a person, is to think: is it ever worth arguing with them? If the person is a fool, then you just can’t win.
The third step is when you think like this: I notice that no-one ever argues with me for long. Is that because I’m always right, or because I’m a fool who refuses to lose an argument?
