Tech

You know the file I mean. That one. The one everyone sidesteps in meetings, with names like legacy_utils.php or v2_hackfix_backup_FINAL_v5_REAL.php. The one that’s always “outside scope,” “due for a rewrite,” or, my favorite, “stable, so let’s not touch it.” Funny thing is, it’s not the code that scares us. It’s the echoes. Open it, and you don’t just see functions, you see fingerprints. A quiet panic commit from 2016. A block of commented-out code labeled “don’t delete (trust me).” A TODO that’s basically a cry for help. ...

You ever read code and feel like someone left the lights on for you? That happened to me last week, I opened a file I hadn’t touched in months. I was bracing myself, you know, the way you do when walking into a messy garage. But it was… clear. Modular. Named like someone actually cared. And I laughed, because the “someone” was me. Six months ago, me had a good day. ...