You Are a Lazy Developer, and It's Fine
In many industries, "lazy" is often seen as a negative term, describing images of procrastination and avoiding hard work. However, when it comes to programming, laziness can be one of your greatest assets. Many of the best developers are “lazy” in the most productive ways possible.
In this article, we'll look at how can you make better of your laziness to get work done more efficiently and become more successful in your career.
1. Work Smarter, Not Harder
One of the hallmarks of a lazy developer is the tendency to automate repetitive tasks. Why do something manually over and over again when you can write a script to handle it for you? This type of laziness is about optimizing your workflow, freeing up your time to focus on more important and challenging problems.
- Automation of Routine Tasks: Whether it's setting up continuous integration pipelines, automating deployments, or writing scripts to handle mundane data processing tasks, automation is a key tool in the lazy developer’s toolkit. This approach not only reduces the risk of human error but also speeds up development cycles.
- Efficiency Gains: By investing time upfront in automation, you create more time for tasks that require creative thinking and problem-solving. This leads to increased productivity and a more enjoyable work experience.
2. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
Lazy developers are masters of reusability. They know the value of writing code once and then reusing it whenever possible. This principle extends beyond just their code—they also make smart use of existing libraries, frameworks, and methodologies.
- Leveraging Existing Solutions: Instead of writing a custom solution for every problem, lazy developers look for existing libraries or frameworks that can solve the problem. This saves time and leverages the collective knowledge and testing of the developer community.
- Modular Code Design: Writing modular, reusable code ensures you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. By breaking down functionality into reusable components, lazy developers can easily adapt and apply their code to new projects or features.
- Design Patterns: Lazy developers make use of well-established design patterns to solve common problems. This not only saves time but also ensures that their code is easier to understand and maintain by other developers who are familiar with these patterns.
- Guidelines and Best Practices: By adopting existing code guidelines and standards, lazy developers streamline their workflow, reduce waste, and focus on delivering value quickly and efficiently.
- Power of GenAI: It’s not a bad thing to ask your AI to write tests for you or even generate code snippets. Developers recognize the potential of AI-driven tools to automate repetitive tasks, generate boilerplate code, and even suggest improvements to their existing codebase. This allows them to focus on more critical tasks, such as solving complex problems and optimizing performance.
3. Less is More
Laziness often drives developers to seek the simplest, most elegant solutions. They don't over-engineer or add unnecessary complexity because they know that simpler solutions are easier to maintain, debug, and scale.
- KISS Principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid): Lazy developers adhere to the KISS principle, striving to keep their code as straightforward as possible. This doesn't mean cutting corners, but rather focusing on clarity and avoiding unnecessary complexity.
- Avoiding Premature Optimization: Instead of spending hours optimizing code that doesn’t need it, lazy developers prioritize getting a working solution first. They optimize only when necessary, allowing them to focus on what matters in the early stages of development.
4. Don’t Go It Alone (Delegating and Collaborating)
Laziness encourages collaboration. A lazy developer knows that they don’t have to do everything themselves. They are comfortable asking for help, delegating tasks, and relying on the strengths of their team.
- Code Reviews and Pair Programming: By involving others in the development process, lazy developers benefit from fresh perspectives and shared knowledge. Code reviews and pair programming are great ways to catch errors early and ensure high-quality code.
- Using Open Source: Lazy developers are often big fans of open source. They contribute to and use open-source projects to avoid duplicating effort and to take advantage of tools and libraries that have already been vetted by the community.
5. Documentation: The Ultimate Lazy Tool
It might seem counterintuitive, but lazy developers are often diligent about documentation. Why? Because good documentation saves them time in the long run. It reduces the need to constantly explain how something works or to re-familiarize themselves with their code months later.
- Self-Documenting Code: Striving to write code that is so clear and well-structured that it almost documents itself. However, they also understand when additional documentation is necessary to ensure that others (including your future self) can easily understand and use their code.
- Automated Documentation: Leveraging tools that automatically generate documentation from code comments or annotations is another lazy developer strategy. This reduces the effort required to maintain up-to-date documentation as the codebase evolves.
Written by Mohamed Ait Dahane
Published on November 5, 2024