I think the most profound way I’ve changed as a coder over the years is that I always used to consider general, adaptable, future-resilient solutions to be the gold standard, and spent a lot of time & effort trying to find them. I don’t do that any more.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a general solution hold up over time in 25 years, no matter how cleverly designed, because ultimately something changes to shift the goalposts that no design could account for. And then, a general solution is harder to adapt or to let go of
Despite what you’re often taught, it’s best to design solely for the problem in front of you, as ruthlessly simply as possible with the fewest abstractions & levels of indirection, so it’s easier to adapt when the fundamentals change, or to throw away and re-do if needed
