If you write some code now, and look back at it after a couple of weeks/months/years. It will look worse that it does today.

Like the inflation of money, code also has inflation.

The state of the art is changing. Coding used to be done on room sized computers built out of lamps. Then assembly code. Then C. Then higher order languages. (I know, I’m skipping stuff)

New frameworks emerge which can do things in a simpler way.

You as an individual keep learning. Making you a better programmer as time goes by. Code you wrote when you were a ‘worse’ programmer, is less good than code you write today.


It creates a nice metaphor with money and risk. If you keep cash, you lose money but have only little risk. If you put your money in the bank, you may gain/lose a little money (depending on times) for a little more risk. If you invest your money, you gain more money (depending on the investment) for more risk.

So how about code?