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Praveen Rajamani
Praveen Rajamani

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Think Like a Farmer - Software Engineer Edition

What does farming have to do with software engineering?

A lot more than you would think.
In a world where developers are constantly pushed to move faster, deliver more, and stay ahead of the curve, something is refreshing and surprisingly effective about thinking like a farmer.

Farmers do not chase every trend. They do not expect instant results. They observe. They plan. They wait. And they understand something we often forget in tech:

🌱 Growth takes time.

The Farmer’s Mindset - For Devs

Here’s what it might look like to approach your software craft the way a farmer approaches their field:

1. Prepare the Soil

Before farmers plant anything, they work the land. They clear rocks, add nutrients, and build irrigation.

In software, your soil is your foundation:

  • Clean architecture

  • Automated tests

  • DevOps pipelines

  • Good documentation

Do not skip this step. Poor foundations ruin great ideas.

2. Plant with Purpose

Farmers do not plant random seeds and hope for the best. They study their environment and choose crops strategically.

As a dev:

  • Pick tech that suits your context, not just what is trending

  • Build features your users actually need

  • Write code with the future in mind

Every line of code is a seed. Plant wisely.

3. Respect the Seasons

Not every season is for growth. There are times to experiment, times to scale, and times to refactor or rest.

Just like a field cannot be harvested endlessly, neither can your team.

Ask yourself:

  • Is it time to innovate, or optimize?

  • Should we slow down to pay off technical debt?

  • Are we forcing growth in an off-season?

Sustainable development requires seasonal thinking.

4. Weed Relentlessly

Weeds choke crops.

In software, weeds are:

  • Dead code

  • Outdated dependencies

  • Unused features

  • Slow, manual workflows

They might not seem urgent, but over time, they strangle progress.

A farmer does not hesitate to pull a weed. Neither should you.

5. Celebrate the Harvest

Farmers do not work all year and ignore the harvest. They celebrate it because it matters.

As devs,
we move from release to release without pausing. But every launch, every bug fix, every "it works!" moment deserves recognition.

Take pride in what you grow. Share it. Reflect.

Final Thoughts - Plant Code, Grow Systems

Software is not a race. It is not even a marathon. It is a cycle, like farming - a long game.

So instead of burning out chasing every framework or delivering faster at all costs, maybe it is time to:

🌿 Think long-term.
🌿 Cultivate quality.
🌿 Tend your codebase like a living thing.

Because good software, like good crops, does not just happen - it grows.

Top comments (14)

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dotallio profile image
Dotallio

Love this analogy, especially the part about respecting the seasons - I've learned the hard way that rest and cleanup cycles are just as important as building new stuff. What do you think is the trickiest "weed" to keep out of your codebase?

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iampraveen profile image
Praveen Rajamani

Thank you! I totally agree, rest and cleanup are so underrated, but make a huge difference.

For me, the trickiest weed is probably old, unused code that just sits around. It is easy to ignore because it does not always break anything, but over time, it makes everything harder to understand and maintain. Regularly reviewing and cleaning up really helps keep things healthy!

What about you? Any weeds you find especially sneaky?

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sumonta056 profile image
Sumonta Saha Mridul

Loved the concept, never thought like that

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iampraveen profile image
Praveen Rajamani

Thank you! 🙌

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nathan_tarbert profile image
Nathan Tarbert

growth like this is always nice to see kinda makes me wonder you think habits or just sticking around matters more over time

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iampraveen profile image
Praveen Rajamani

I think both matters good habits help to grow, but staying consistent over time really makes the difference. Just like farming, steady effort leads to the best results.

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nathan_tarbert profile image
Nathan Tarbert

BTW, very interesting take :)

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shabesh_10 profile image
Shabeshvaran S

Really a nice read mate.

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iampraveen profile image
Praveen Rajamani

Thank you ☺️

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kader198 profile image
Abdel Kader Maguiraga • Edited

Insightful

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iampraveen profile image
Praveen Rajamani

Thank you :)

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Shantanu Methikar

Amazing co-relation! Loved it!

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iampraveen profile image
Praveen Rajamani

Thank you! 🙌

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mohamma35066861 profile image
Mohammad Noushad Siddiqi

What a brilliant way to see software development like being a farmer. I really enjoyed how you first drew a comparison to farming and then reinforced it by connecting each farming technique with software devs.
This line especially I like a lot Poor foundations ruin great ideas.