When people hear, “A good programmer is a lazy programmer,” they often chuckle nervously, wondering if it’s just a cheeky excuse for procrastination. But let me assure you, it’s anything but. This statement encapsulates a powerful philosophy for creating resilient, efficient, scalable systems.
Let’s unpack what this means and why laziness, combined with a firm grasp of SOLID principles and automation, can make you not just a good programmer but a great one.
Larry Wall’s Three Virtues of a Programmer
Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, coined three virtues of a programmer that resonate deeply with this idea. These virtues—laziness, impatience, and hubris—are surprisingly practical guides for software development.
1. Laziness
Laziness isn’t about dodging work; it’s about investing time to make things easier in the long run. This is where automation shines. Why write the same piece of code twice when you can refactor it into a reusable module? Why manually deploy your application every time there’s an update when a CI/CD pipeline can handle it for you?
Embracing laziness means examining repetitive tasks and asking, “How can I make this take zero effort next time?” That mindset drives clean, maintainable code and reusable components—a cornerstone of SOLID principles.
2. Impatience
Impatience is your driving force to make things faster for the user and yourself. This might mean writing highly performant code, optimizing database queries, or setting up meaningful logging and monitoring.
For example, have you ever built a tool to automate debugging because you got tired of sifting through endless logs? That’s impatience working for you. It pushes you to solve inefficiencies creatively.
3. Hubris
Hubris is the pride in your work that drives you to create something exceptional: It’s crafting code so good that no one can criticize it. But it’s not just about aesthetics; it’s about building software that adheres to Uncle Bob principles like single responsibility, open-closed, and dependency inversion.
You should feel confident that your system is modular, testable, and ready to handle change. Hubris motivates you to follow best practices, not just because they’re rules, but because they make your solutions shine.
Applying “Laziness” with SOLID Principles
The SOLID principles are your blueprint for lazy programming done right. They ensure your laziness doesn’t lead to messy spaghetti code but results in a flexible and scalable system.
- Single Responsibility Principle (SRP): Write classes and functions that do one thing well. It’s like saying, “If I’m going to automate this task, let me do it so neatly that I never have to touch it again.”
- Open-Closed Principle (OCP): Your code should be open to extension but closed to modification. This means designing systems that allow new features without breaking existing ones. The ultimate lazy move? Future-proofing your work.
- Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP): Ensure derived classes can stand in for their base classes without issues. It’s the kind of thinking that prevents you from having to rewrite code because of unforeseen consequences.
- Interface Segregation Principle (ISP): Keep interfaces small and focused. Why force a class to implement methods it doesn’t need? That’s just extra effort you’ll have to deal with later.
- Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP): Depend on abstractions, not concretions. This makes your codebase adaptable and easier to maintain, which is ideal for a lazy programmer.
Automation: The Lazy Programmer’s Superpower
Automation is where laziness transforms into brilliance. By automating the boring parts of your work, you free up mental bandwidth for solving more interesting problems. Here are a few ways to embrace automation:
- Testing: Write automated unit and integration tests. Trust me, you don’t want to test every feature manually after each change.
- Deployment: Use tools like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or GitLab CI/CD pipelines to automate build and deployment processes.
- Code Quality: Leverage static code analyzers like SonarQube to catch potential issues early.
- Monitoring and Alerts: Set up tools like Prometheus or Grafana to keep an eye on your system so you don’t have to.
Wrapping It UP
Being a lazy programmer isn’t about shirking responsibility; it’s about working smarter, not harder. By embracing the virtues of laziness, impatience, and hubris and combining them with SOLID principles and automation, you can build systems that are both efficient and a joy to maintain.
So, the next time someone tells you to “stop being lazy,” smile and get back to designing your next automated masterpiece. After all, laziness might be your superpower.
Stay curious, stay lazy (in the right way), and keep coding.