The Stoic Hack That Changed My Dev Game
Why You Need The View From Above
Ever spent hours debugging a function only to realize you were solving the wrong problem altogether? Yeah, me too. That's why I want to talk about this stoic principle that's seriously changed my approach to software development: the view from above.
You don't hear about this concept much in stoicism talks, but damn, it's a game-changer. It's basically about zooming out on things and looking at them from a higher level to see the whole picture. And while this perspective helps in all aspects of life, it's particularly clutch for us software developers.
The Three Levels You Need to Balance
Code Level: In the Weeds
This is where most of us live day-to-day. You're deep in the trenches, obsessing over variable names, optimizing that one function, and debating whether you should use a switch statement or if-else chains.
I remember a time years ago when I spent a few hours perfecting a sorting algorithm for a feature that, when I finally zoomed out, I realized would only ever handle lists of like 15 to 20 items. Talk about missing the forest for the trees!
While this close-up view is essential for consistency and readability, being so zoomed in makes it damn near impossible to understand how your code impacts the bigger picture.
System Level: How Things Connect
This is where we look at how our precious little functions play with others. How do these classes interact? What happens when we call that third-party API? Is our database going to handle these query patterns?
There was this time I was building this notification system that looked perfect in isolation. But when I zoomed out to the system level, I realized it would spam the hell out of users when combined with our existing email system. Saved myself from an angry customer shitstorm by taking that broader view.
Purpose Level: Why Are We Even Doing This?
This might be the most important level, and it's the one we tend to skip when we're rushing to push features. It's all about the actual impact on users and the business.
Why did we build this system in the first place? What problem does it solve for our customers? How does it help the business make money or save costs?
There was this time several years ago my team got super excited about implementing this complex analytics dashboard with all these fancy charts and real-time data. We spent a month building it, making it look slick as hell. But when we finally zoomed out to the purpose level and talked to our actual users, we discovered they only needed three specific metrics and preferred weekly email reports over a dashboard they had to log into. All that work, and we'd completely missed what would actually provide value. Had we started at the purpose level, we could've delivered something useful in a week instead of wasting a month on features nobody wanted.
Applying This to Your Daily Work
When you're designing a system or adding a feature, you've gotta start from the top:
First, understand the purpose: What's the actual impact we're trying to make here? Is this solving a real problem?
Then, figure out the system approach: How does this fit with everything else? Are we creating future headaches?
Finally, get into the implementation details: Now you can obsess over naming conventions and code style, knowing it's built on solid ground.
This Approach Saved My Ass During Debugging
Whenever I hit a nasty bug now, I resist the urge to immediately dive into the code. Instead, I start from a high level:
What's the actual impact of this bug?
Which systems could be involved?
What changed recently that might have affected this?
Then I gradually zoom in until I find the culprit. It takes some patience, but this top-down approach has saved me countless hours of random poking around in the code.
Finding Balance Is Key
Look, code-level details matter. You don't want to ship spaghetti code that nobody can maintain. But you also don't want to build beautifully structured systems that solve the wrong problems.
The magic happens when you can move between these levels fluidly. Zoom out when you feel stuck, zoom in when you need precision. Don't be the developer who's constantly in the weeds but has no idea why they're building what they're building.
What About You?
Have you ever caught yourself spending way too much time on something that, from a zoomed-out perspective, wasn't even that important? Or maybe you've had that moment of clarity when you stepped back and suddenly saw a much simpler solution?
Let me know how you balance these different perspectives in your own work. I'm still figuring this shit out too.
Quote of the Day:
"Think of substance in its entirety, of which you have the smallest of shares; and of time in its entirety, of which a brief and momentary span has been assigned to you; and of the works of destiny, and how very small is your part in them." - Marcus Aurelius
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