Whatever can happen at any time can happen today. – Seneca
Reflection
You can fix what's broken, or you can step back and ask what it might break later.
You add a helper. Patch the bug. Push it. It works, so you move on.
Six months pass. Someone reopens the file. It might even be you.
They follow the code. It looks familiar until it doesn't.
Code unravels quickly when no one plans for what comes next.
Seneca wrote, "Whatever can happen at any time can happen today."
The future isn't abstract. It's your next deployment. Your next teammate. Your own eyes six months from now.
A clean solution today turns into a blocker tomorrow when you skip the part that needs care.
What you left undocumented can slow down someone else's week.
What you rushed to merge might be back in your inbox, now critical and unclear.
Long-term thinking requires patience.
Not just with the code but with yourself.
You pause. You question. You plan beyond what's urgent.
You don't have to predict the future.
But you need to write like someone else will step into your code next because they will.
Today's Insight
Long-term thinking isn't about knowing what's coming.
It's about caring enough to prepare for whoever shows up.
Action Steps
- Read Your Old Code Like a Stranger - Pull up something you wrote a while ago. Read it without assumptions. Does the logic make sense? Would someone else understand what you meant?
- Clean Something Small -Find one part of your code that still works but feels slightly off. Make it clearer. Not because it's failing, but because making it better now saves someone time later.
- Capture Your Reasoning - When you make a decision, write down why. You might forget; the next developer won't know unless you explain it.
- Push with the Next Person in Mind - Ask yourself who will inherit this before committing. What would they need to know?
Consider This
When did a shortcut come back to slow you down?
What might have changed if you had paused long enough to look further ahead?