Someone new asks
how to get the service
running on their machine.
You answer without looking up.
Just run the setup script.
They go back to their desk.
The script fails
on a version of something
they have never heard of.
They spend the afternoon on it,
alone,
because you said just,
and just means
this should have been easy,
and asking twice
means admitting it was not.
You did not mean any of that.
To you it was just,
because you have done it
two hundred times
and you have forgotten
the three things you fixed
the first time.
That is what the word carries.
It is not a measure of the task.
It is a measure of your familiarity
with the task,
handed to somebody
who does not have it.
Simply does the same.
Obviously does it louder.
Of course is the quiet one.
You see them everywhere.
In code review.
Just extract this into a helper.
In documentation.
Simply configure the proxy.
In estimates.
It is just a new field.
In the review
it tells the author
your suggestion costs nothing,
so arguing with it looks lazy.
In the docs
it tells the reader
that if they are stuck,
the problem is them.
In the estimate
it tells the room
not to ask about the migration,
the backfill,
or the four reports
that read that table.
So take the word out,
and see what is left.
Run the setup script
is a clear instruction.
Run the setup script,
it needs this version installed first,
and it takes about ten minutes
is a useful one.
That second sentence
is the work the word was hiding.
Do the same before you send a review.
Search your comments
for just, simply and obviously,
and delete them.
What remains will be more honest,
and slightly more polite
without trying.
And when somebody else says it to you,
ask the plain question.
How long did it take you
the first time?
Easy is a fact
about the person who has done it.
Leave the word out
and let the work speak.
– Serguey Asael Shinder
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