🔗 Battle-tested lessons from 10 years in a single codebase

Experience is valuable in software because, over time, you see lots of different technologies, get a chance to try out different approaches to problems, and build up all the little ancillary skills that make you more efficient and effective. One particular kind of experience that I think is super valuable, and too rare, is the experience of working with the same codebase for a long, long time.

Early in my career, I worked on the same codebase for over 10 years. Naturally, I learned a lot in that time — I was self-taught and pretty new to software when we launched that project. Only after leaving that project and working at a much more rapid (and typical) cadence have I been able to appreciate how special that long-term tenure was as a learning opportunity. (I’ve probably contributed to 15-20 projects over the course of the next ~8 years.)