Write code to make being human easier. Rip code out if it makes being human harder. Write code to make caring for each other easier. Rip it out if it makes caring for each other harder.

Empathy driven development has literally never failed me. It’s done me better than everything else combined

That's to say, teams that struggle with refactoring skills are also teams that most likely struggle with design skills, because tapping into a rich pool of domain and design insights generated as you refactor in small, safe steps is out of their reach.

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Programming is just an exercise in iterating closer and closer to a correct and precise description of the requirements. Good programmers are the ones who are good at guessing what the customer actually wants, so they can skip some of the endless game of telephone!