Question

Lately, I’ve been going through a pretty weird phase. I feel the need to write/rewrite all the tools I use ( text editors,IDE’s,libraries/modules ) and I don’t know why .
Even though this can be seen as a good thing ( because I learn alot of things in the process , and my software design skills are improving constantly ) , the weirdest part is that I throw away all the code after I’m done, so I kinda work in vain. I’m never satisfied with the code I write. Have you been experimenting this too? How did you get over it?

Answer 1

It sounds like you’re driven by one of a couple different possible ‘syndromes’ (or maybe more than one).

1. Not invented here syndrome (NIHS). This is where nobody’s code is good enough, or does things in the way you want them done. So you think you can do it better.
2. How Does It Work? Syndrome (HDIWS). This where you are fascinated by a program and want to understand how it works, so you basically get down to writing it yourself.
3. Biting off more than you can chew syndrome (BOMTYCCS). This is where you think ‘That can’t be too hard to do, so i’ll just write it myself then I know what it’s doing’. Then, you get partway done with it, enough to make it kind of work, and you realize that your code sucks and that you made too many compromises to get it done quickly, so you throw it away.
4. Too cheap to buy it so you figure you can build it cheaper syndrome (TCTBISYFYCBICS). The name speaks for itself. The problem is that you get partway done, then you realize you’ve fallin into #3 above and think your time is worth more than whatever it is.

I have suffered from all of these, and more.. (Like the classic ‘Need to create an acroynm for everything syndrome (NTCAAFES)’ 😉