I’ve spent the last week looking at old code. This has been very enlightening. On one hand, this code is decrepit and old. Most of it was originally written three designs and six years ago. There are tons of stupid and ridiculous coding decisions that I would never make today.
But that’s exactly why I am so optimistic. Yes, my code sucks from six years ago. But I know that it sucks. That means I’ve learned something about better code since then, and that’s exciting!
Joe Posnanski, one of the greatest sports writers on the planet, made this comment at the bottom of one of his articles:
One of the most underrated talents in baseball, and probably in life, is showing up.
Absolutely. But it isn’t just showing up and hanging around the back of the room. It’s about showing up and trying to take away something new every day, every week. For six years I keep showing up, reading Apple’s docs, reviewing StackOverflow posts, working XCode. So while my code sucked six years ago, it is significantly less embarrassing today.
I hope in six years I look back and think today’s code sucks, too.
Elia Insider 
I’ve tried keeping a journal on a couple of occasions, although it’s been a long time since.
But when I look back on what a wrote sometimes, I’m dumbfounded.
Not only at the relatively poor quality of writing but also in at least some misguided notions I had.
These days, it’s not a journal but what I write online: blog posts, social media, comments – a newsletter!
I hope I’m learning and improving, even incrementally.
On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 7:02 AM, Elia Insider
I don’t want to go back and read my early writings here. I’m sure it is just as bad. After all, I’ve written code almost as long as I’ve written English!
On Tue, Dec 17, 2013 at 9:22 AM, Elia Insider
Ha!