Ask HN: Can I get solidarity stories on senior devs writing overly complex code?

2 points by aerovistae 6y ago ↗ HN

I'm a front-end dev at a well known US company and I keep finding other devs using every possible trick they can to make their code "re-usable" and "robust" when in fact it's impossible to read, difficult to modify, totally uncommented, and many times longer than I would think necessary.

Other seniors tell me the comments aren't needed if I'm good at reading code. It takes me a lot of time to make changes to their code and it's very discouraging sometimes.

1 comment

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uberman 6y ago ↗

I will agree that there is something I might call the "re-usability trap". Spending time and effort to abstract a problem or platform under the banner of re-usability and/or portability when the reality is that the principles are rather unlikely to swap in a new part of the platform.

However....

I would strongly caution you that if your senior people seem to be making the solution more complicated that you feel is necessary, then perhaps you don't fully understand the problem.