Soo True.

"The future lies before you, like paths of pure white snow. Be careful, how you tread it, for every step will show ."

Recently I came across this "saying". I then realized how true it is not only in our day to day life, but how we design and develop.

Every line of code we write(or paste!), every single variable we define, every class or interface we design defines what and how we are in this software world.

Sometimes we write code that we try so much to conceal from the rest of team/world. The code that is riddled with shoddy variable names and kludge class definitions and irresponsible code usage and little or no error handling. The kinda of code we shy away from adding into any source safe. The kinda code that you pray your peers would skip right ahead during code reviews, if and when it happens.

Sometime in our better days, when we had just the right morning, just the perfect coffee(developer's fuel!) and when our boss was out on vacation, we just happen to write the most superb code that we could write for a long time. The kinda of code, you spend another couple of hours adding comments to. The kinda code that lets you sit back and think of new business possibilities and products that you can develop with this kinda code. The kinda code that you would send out meeting invites to your colleagues to review and demo your application to. Those are the day after which you go home feeling that you have found the purpose of your day to day life.

Just like life, out software days have their ups and downs, Highs and lows, errors and flawless complies, network issues and blazing connectivity times. Days when we have to struggle with just one single issue hours on ends and days when we completed our tasks, coded, tested and checked in, we start to browse the net more freely with a self assumed right to browse the net during work hours.

Just like life, everything we do defines what we are and everything we do sticks with us. Cuz as a software (developer/analyst/lead/programmer/architect) we are what we develop. So the next time you start off to develop any piece of software, take a couple of minutes, or one with a tight deadline, and sit back and think what you are going to develop. Its not just another piece of software, it a piece of you, your history and what you are.