In investigations, assumptions kill

Ahmed Algrgawy — Thu, 14 May 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Like Jack Reacher once said:
“In investigations, assumptions kill.”

I think the same thing happens in software development more often than we realize.

As developers, we sometimes assume the client needs X when they actually meant X+, or sometimes something completely different. Other times, we assume how a feature should behave without fully understanding the business side behind it.

Recently, I faced a situation where my assumptions did not match what was actually expected. The result was misleading communication, wasted effort, and time spent building or thinking in the wrong direction.

And honestly, most of these situations do not happen because people are bad at communication.
They happen because everyone thinks they already understand enough.

One thing I started realizing:
Context matters more than assumptions.

If something is unclear:

Ask your leader or client to elaborate more
Ask why the feature exists, not only what it should do
Repeat your understanding back to them
Write down your assumptions clearly
Do not treat “I think” as confirmation

A small clarification early can save:

hours of development
unnecessary meetings
company money
team frustration
rework and technical debt

One practice that helped me a lot is explicitly listing assumptions before starting implementation.

Something as simple as:
“so you mean that this is for….., please confirm with me”

can completely change the direction of a discussion before problems happen.

Sometimes the issue is not technical skill.
Sometimes the issue is building the correct thing in the first place.

Assumptions do not only kill investigations.
They also kill time, clarity, and momentum in software projects.

Struggling with Shopify Liquid? Here’s What Finally Made It Click for Me

Ahmed Algrgawy — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 08:03:26 +0000

Recently, I worked on a Shopify store, and honestly… it was challenging at first.

I had never worked with Shopify before, so I started by exploring the codebase through the Shopify theme editor. What surprised me the most was the syntax — a lot of .liquid files. It felt like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript had all been fighting each other.

At first, I wasn’t comfortable working directly in the Shopify editor. So I looked for a better workflow.

That’s when I discovered Shopify CLI.

I pulled the project locally, started working in my own editor, and managed everything with Git — pushing and pulling changes while keeping full control of the code. That shift alone made a huge difference in my productivity.

While working on the project, I also took time to understand how Liquid actually works.

Liquid is a templating language, not a full programming language. It runs on Shopify’s servers and generates the final HTML that users see.

It mainly has three building blocks:
• Objects → like product, cart, customer (data coming from Shopify)
• Tags → logic like loops and conditions {% if %}, {% for %}
• Filters → used to transform data like {{ product.title | upcase }}

So instead of writing full JavaScript logic, you're mostly shaping and rendering data that Shopify already provides.

Once I understood that, the whole structure started to make much more sense.

What also stood out to me is how powerful the Shopify ecosystem is. It’s not just a store — it’s more like an entire platform with apps, integrations, and extensibility everywhere.

During the project, I also built a custom app to integrate Shopify with an external system, which added another layer of complexity.

What I really liked about this experience is that I wasn’t working in just one place:

• Shopify CLI
• Theme editor
• Local development
• External backend
• Shopify dashboard

Key takeaway:

Sometimes the hardest part isn’t the technology itself — it’s understanding how it thinks.

Once you do, everything starts to click.

DEV Community: Ahmed Algrgawy

In investigations, assumptions kill

Struggling with Shopify Liquid? Here’s What Finally Made It Click for Me