Sometimes, usually during the evening, I lower the lights in the living room, put some of my greatest Scotch in a glass, and stare at this fine and beautiful piece of code I wrote a long time ago that I am really proud of.

You mean the "i should be debugging my code, but instead i'm looking at my old code" moment?

@mmsk I could not phrase it better!

I used to consider beautiful generic solutions valuable. The truth is, if it took you really long to write and it won't work better or last longer than a refined hack then you've just wasted your time.

@homo-lorens Of course it's very hard to tell what's excessive, and an insufficiently abstract solution leads to many problems, but remember that you're making a product to be used, and not an exhibition of your own brilliance.

Don't take this personally, I'm just describing my own mistakes in the hopes that someone finds this wisdomlet when they need it.

I like to pour my finest whiskey and contemplate depression, but it's similar!