Schedule A

I came cross a post today by James Bennett on “magic” in general but more specifically in Python, Django, and Rails.

I tend to think that most critiques which invoke the term “magic” are simply expressing part of the Python philosophy which says “explicit is better than implicit”. Just because something is better though, doesn’t mean it is always the right answer.

James gets to an important point:

“To put it concisely, I think that’s what a lot of critiques of “magic” really boil down to: the notion that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.”

He goes one to say that this realization is an important part of becoming a good programmer. I have to wholeheartedly agree. This concept was first crystallized for me when I was reading Inside COM by Dale Rogerson and I read the phrase:

“Just because you can put peas up your nose doesn’t mean that you should”

Both because the phrase communicated a important idea and because it has excellent imagery, I have used as my email signature for the last few years. Truly they are words to live by if you are developing software or not.