I used to be obsessed with the "purity" of my code. Back when I started, I felt like a fraud if I wasn't hand-coding every single div or building custom backend logic for things as simple as a contact form. To me, a long, complex GitHub contribution graph was the only proof that I was actually getting better at my craft.
I remember taking on a project for a small business owner who just needed a way to showcase their portfolio and book appointments. Instead of looking for the fastest way to get them online, I spent two weeks building a custom CMS from scratch. I was so proud of the architecture. I used the latest frameworks, optimized every query, and felt like a true engineer.
Then the client called me.
They didn't care about the clean architecture. They didn't care that I used a cutting-edge state management library. They were frustrated because they couldn't figure out how to update a simple image, and they had lost two weeks of potential bookings while I was busy "building."
That was the moment the lightbulb went on. I realized that my pride in writing "hard" code was actually getting in the way of being a good developer.
The real world doesn't reward you for how difficult your work was to write. It rewards you for how well it works for the person on the other side of the screen.
This is why I stopped looking down on no-code and low-code tools. I started seeing them for what they actually are: a way to skip the boring, repetitive stuff so I can focus on the big picture. When I use a tool to handle a layout or a database connection in minutes instead of days, I’m not being lazy. I’m being strategic.
It gives me the breathing room to think about the things that actually matter, like the user journey, the messaging, and the overall feel of the site. It turns out that a website that loads instantly and helps a business grow is a much bigger "technical success" than a beautiful codebase that never sees the light of day.
If you're a young developer, don't feel like you have to do everything the hard way to prove you're talented. Learn the fundamentals, yes. Master the code. But also learn when to put the code aside.
The best developers I know aren't the ones who write the most lines. They’re the ones who know how to solve a problem the fastest, even if it means not writing a single line of code at all.
Your value isn't in your keyboard. It's in your ability to make things happen.
Masum Billah @billahdotdev
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