Nobody Writes Clean Code. We All Just Pretend
TL;DR
Clean code is a subjective ideal, not a universal standard. Real-world projects often start messy due to deadlines and business pressures, leading to hacks that become legacy. Strive for clean code as a direction, not perfection, and be kind to yourself about the inevitable compromises.
Key Takeaways
- •Clean code is a subjective feeling with no universal definition, often defined by readability and simplicity rather than strict standards.
- •Real projects rarely start clean due to pressures like deadlines, proof-of-concepts, and business demands, leading to messy codebases over time.
- •Common issues include POCs becoming production code, endless refactors, perfectionism creating fear, and AI-generated code that looks clean but is flawed.
- •Business priorities often outweigh clean code, as features and speed are more critical for deals and competition than maintainability.
- •Clean code is worth pursuing as a mindset and direction, not a perfect destination, and self-compassion is key in dealing with inevitable compromises.
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I’ve been writing software for more than a decade now, and one of the most important lessons I ever learned came from a conversation early in my career. I told a colleague - a seriously brilliant engineer - “You know, the code in our app is kinda shitty.”
He smiled, nodded like an old monk on a mountain, and said:
“It’s shitty everywhere.”
And honestly?
The longer I’ve been in this profession, the more I realize how unbelievably true that is. Every company, every team, every project - big or small - ends up with its own personalized flavor of chaos. Yet we keep pretending that somewhere out there, maybe at Google, or Netflix, or some mysterious Scandinavian startup… someone is writing perfectly clean code.
Spoiler: they’re not 🙃
And that’s fine. Really.
✨ What Even Is “Clean Code”? (Be honest… nobody has one definition)
Over the years I’ve heard more definitions than I can count. “Readable.” “Simple.” “Consistent.” “SOLID.” “Elegant.” “Whatever I personally would write if I had more time and fewer deadlines.”
It’s all vibes. No one agrees on anything.
Ask ten developers what clean code means and you’ll get twenty-seven different answers. Clean code isn’t really a standard - it’s a feeling. It’s that moment of peace where your brain goes, “okay, at least this part won’t haunt me in three months.”
A universal definition?
Yeah… let me know when you find one 😌
🚧 Real Projects Don’t Start Clean
They start with pressure.
With managers wanting something “on the screen.”
With proof-of-concepts.
With deadlines.
With juniors doing their best.
With code written at 2 AM during a sprint that should have never existed.
Codebases don’t start messy.
They start fragile - and reality breaks them instantly.
🔥 The POC That Accidentally Became Production
This one is legendary. There was a quick prototype built by juniors. It wasn’t meant to live longer than a week. It was basically duct tape with feelings.
Then a manager burst in like, “We just need ONE more thing - add a quick chart so we can win this contract!”
The chart was hacked in.
The contract was won.
The POC was shipped straight to production 😭
Developers have spent YEARS fixing bugs in that area. Everyone keeps saying “we’ll refactor it soon,” but somehow there’s always something more important. And that’s how legacy is born - not through bad developers, but through successful hacks.
⛏️ The Five-Year Refactor (that’s still “almost done”)
Another time, a team started refactoring a big module.
Responsibly. Carefully. Step by step.
A year passed.
Then another.
And another.
I ran into the manager a while later and she proudly said, “We’re almost done refactoring that module!”
Almost.
After five years.
Refactoring doesn’t finish.
It just slowly transitions into folklore.
🎻 The Perfectionist Senior Who Accidentally Created Spaghetti
Once I worked with a senior backend dev who was genuinely brilliant. His code reviews were essays. He analyzed edge cases no one had ever asked about. He rewrote variable names like he was editing a novel.
And yet… somehow the application was a disaster.
Full of holes.
Inconsistent.
Unstable.
Why? Because people were terrified to ask him questions. No one wanted him reviewing their PR. No one wanted to touch “his code.”
And when developers are scared, they don’t improve things - they work around them. Quietly. Secretly. Carefully.
And nothing grows faster in silence than spaghetti 🍝
Perfectionism doesn’t create clean code.
Perfectionism creates fear.
And fear creates chaos.
😂 The Magical [enableSpecialMode]="true" That Should Never Have Existed
Okay, this one is from long ago - but it’s still one of my favorites.
There was a bug.
Fixing it caused another bug.
Managers were playing political ping-pong about what should be fixed first.
Deadlines were screaming.
And the fastest, safest fix - the one that wouldn’t break anything else - was to slap this little masterpiece into a component:
[enableSpecialMode]="true"
The funniest part?
There was no “special mode.”
It didn’t exist.
The name was a lie.
But hey - it worked. It fixed the issue instantly.
We all promised to refactor it “later.” We all knew “later” meant “never.” And yep - nobody ever refactored it 😂
Hacks live longer than most engineers.
🤖 AI: The Cleanest-Looking Mess You’ve Ever Seen
Now we have AI.
AI writes code that looks clean. It’s beautifully formatted, consistent, neat, readable…
and completely unhinged underneath.
AI happily introduces new dependencies, solves symptoms instead of causes, ignores architecture, and produces logic nobody understands. It’s like having a very fast, very confident junior who never asks “why” and generates 300 lines of elegant nonsense in three seconds ✨
The future of legacy is machine-generated - and painfully well-indented.
📊 Business vs Clean Code: A Fight Clean Code Always Loses
Developers want stability, clarity, maintainability, structure.
Business wants speed, features, deadlines, demos.
Not because business is bad - but because that’s how business works.
Clean code is incredible.
But clean code doesn’t win deals.
Clean code doesn’t impress investors.
Clean code doesn’t magically beat competitors.
Excel wins. Always.
🤔 So… Is Clean Code Even Worth Trying For?
Yes.
Absolutely, yes.
But not the mythical version from books. Not the holy-grail, perfect, glistening, immaculate codebase that survives unchanged for years.
Clean code is not a destination - it’s a direction.
It’s an intention. A mindset. A kindness to your future self. A way to make things less painful rather than perfect.
Write the cleanest code you reasonably can. Refactor when it matters. Communicate your hacks. Understand your shortcuts. Choose clarity whenever possible.
But also - and this is crucial:
💛 Don’t punish yourself for the messy parts.
💛 Don’t feel guilty for compromises you had to make.
💛 Don’t compare your real code to textbook fantasy code.
💛 Don’t assume anyone else has it all figured out - they don’t.
We all have dark corners in our codebases.
We all have embarrassing files hidden deep inside the repo.
We all have something like:
[enableSpecialMode]="true"
lurking somewhere in production.
And guess what?
We’re still good developers.
We’re still learning.
We’re still doing our best.
Clean code matters - but being kind to yourself matters more 💛✨