Niles Brandon

As I look through code that's been written, a few things become incredibly evident about the person who wrote it. Whether you know the person or not, you can quickly understand the mindset they were in, and there's really only two mindsets they could've been in. They either own their code. Or they don't.

I obviously don't mean they own an equity stake in the lines they wrote or that they're earning royalties from the code. I simply mean whether they've shown that they have OWNERSHIP of their code.

Look at someone's code, and ask yourself the following: Did the person proudly place their name on their work for others to admire and acknowledge?

To find the answer to this question, I urge you to look at the following. Construct a mind map of a complex flow in their code. Does this mind map make complete and reusable sense? Is the way functions call each other sensible? Can I easily add to this without completely changing the architecture of how it was written?

Properly architected code will almost always be simple to add to or modify if needed. As soon as code gets unnecessarily complicated to modify when requirements change, there is a high chance it was not thought through with enough consideration, or ownership.

Personally, I've had ownership of most things in my life. The quality of food I put in my body. The way I love my spouse. Keeping a proper exercise routine. The way I carry myself in public. Keeping a healthy spiritual self in balance.

The last ingredient was to apply the same care and ownership I have in those arenas to the code I design and write. Once I did, every single day of coding became an easier and more rewarding experience exponentially. I cared about the output of my work and was proud to have my name written all over my commits.

Taking ownership of one's work is the single best tool you have. It benefits you. It benefits your work. It benefits your future.