When you‘ve been toiling on a piece of code for a while, refactoring it, refining it, and generally spending a lot of time in the codebase, occasionally you make a major breakthrough, some kind of new way of thinking about the code, or a new architecture, some re-organisation that this time really will make things so much better. When this happens I try to create a minimal implementation that proves the thing works, and if I get to that stage where I know for sure it‘s going to work, there‘s a very unique mental state that arises.
It‘s kind of dumb in a way, in some way similar to the anticipation before Christmas, or something like that, everything feels a bit lighter, you have a spring in your step. You know clarity is just around the corner. Nothing can stop you now! It‘s the greatest feeling in the world.
And then the world has other ideas, and well, isn‘t always on board with your amazing plan, that will fix everything. But for those few hours before reality hits you in the face, things are wonderful.
I am several days after one of those times now, so I‘m feeling more like I‘ve been beaten up by several gangs of thugs, metaphorically and spiritually speaking, but I wanted to write a post about this state of mind, so I can remember it if indeed it ever does go away. I‘ve been programming for about 20 years at this point, and it still happens to me every so often, so hopefully that will continue.
I wonder if there is a term other programmers refer to it?