He who fears death will never do anything worthy of a man who is alive. – Seneca
Reflection
Clarity doesn't always speak in calm.
Sometimes, it interrupts.
A console spits out a warning. The test fails again. Something in the trace doesn't sit right.
You feel it in your hands before you think. Reach for the keyboard. Try to make it go away.
But pause.
Not every fix moves things forward.
Not every tension needs a resolution.
Was the flaw in the code or in your need to erase uncertainty?
The most dangerous change is often the fastest one.
Not because it broke something, but because it buried a question too quickly.
We confuse motion with meaning.
We mistake response for resolution.
But often, we fix to feel better, not to make better.
A green test can still lie.
A clean diff can carry confusion just dressed in better clothes.
Clarity isn't about tidying up.
It's not about cleaning things up right away.
It's about staying with something you don't understand yet and giving it time to reveal its purpose to you.
The sharpest developers don't rush to solve what they haven't sat with.
They slow the moment.
They widen the view.
They ask: what is this trying to reveal?
And sometimes, they don't fix at all.
They wait.
They watch.
They understand.
Because not every flaw calls for action.
Some just ask for attention.
Today's Insight
The urge to fix is often fear, reaching for closure.
Clarity comes not from reaction, but from restraint.
Action Steps
- Rewind the Patch - Revisit your last hotfix. What question did you close too early?
- Sit With the Open Ticket - Find one unresolved issue. Let it breathe. What discomfort does it surface?
- Interrupt the Reflex - Next time your hands reach for a fix, pause. What stirred it, failure, or fear?
- Narrate the Nudge - Pick a recent cleanup. Explain why it happened. Would you still defend that change today?
- Leave the Error One More Day - Take a warning, you usually resolve on instinct. Let it sit. What rises in its silence?
Consider This
Every bug is a signal.
But not all signals demand a reply.
Sometimes the wisest move is to stay with the tension.
Not to avoid the issue but to understand it more deeply.
What's one part of your system or yourself you keep trying to fix, when maybe what it really needs… is to be heard?