Why Good Code Matters: Our Code Has Readers Too

I recently realized something: authors live by writing books, and software engineers live by writing code. An author publishes a book, and readers judge it by the content, the style, and whether it gives them value.

As engineers, we publish our code too. And we also have readers: our current coworkers, future coworkers, maybe even someone who joins the team years later. They do not read our code for fun. They read it because they need to add a new feature, fix a bug, or understand how another service works.

That is why the quality of our code matters so much.

If someone opens our file and the code is clear, simple, and easy to understand, they feel happy. They can quickly figure out what is going on and make changes safely. But if the code is messy, confusing, or too complicated, they get frustrated. They may even start avoiding that part of the codebase.

To me, good code has one important quality:

Good code is easy to understand and easy to change.

Not clever. Not fancy. Not look how smart I am.

Just simple and maintainable.

I try to remind myself: my reader is a real person. Maybe my teammate today. Maybe someone who joins the company next year. Maybe even myself six months later. When future me reads my old code, I do not want to say, "Who wrote this?" I want to say, "Thank you."

Writing good code is not about perfection. It is about respect for the next person who needs to read it.

That is why I want to improve as a software engineer. Not only to deliver features, but to leave behind code that others can easily work with.

Because at the end of the day, just like authors are judged by their writing, we are judged by our code. And I want to write code that makes the next reader's life easier, not harder.