The Most Underrated Principle in Software Development: Consistency
Ask a room full of developers what the hardest problem in software engineering is, and someone will almost certainly echo Phil Karlton's famous quote:
"There are only two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation and naming things."
It’s clever. It’s true. But it’s missing something.
After years of building, scaling, and maintaining software, I’ve come to believe that the real hardest problem, the one that quietly undermines codebases everywhere, is consistency.
Not because it’s elusive or deeply technical, but because it’s boring.
And that’s what makes it dangerous.
Consistency Isn’t Sexy, But It’s Everything
Consistency doesn't get much attention. It won’t impress in a lightning talk or go viral on dev Twitter. But if you've ever joined a new repo and instantly understood what was going on, that was consistency. If you've ever built a feature without having to reinvent the wheel, that was consistency.
The lack of it, on the other hand, is death by a thousand cuts. Multiple state management patterns. Different naming conventions for the same thing. Inconsistent folder structures. These things slow everyone down, even if no one talks about them directly.
Naming Isn't That Hard If You're Consistent
Most naming problems aren't about names; they're about misalignment. Should you call it getUserData, fetchUser, or loadUserInfo? It doesn't matter, as long as your team consistently picks one pattern and sticks to it.
When naming is consistent, it creates predictability. You don't need to remember exact method names; you can guess them. That saves time. That scales.
Cache Invalidation Is Loud. Inconsistency Is Silent.
Cache bugs make noise. You notice them immediately. Inconsistency creeps in quietly. It starts small: a slightly different way to fetch data here, a different file layout there. And before you know it, the system is a patchwork of partial conventions and workarounds.
Fixing inconsistent code takes longer because you have to understand it before you can touch it. And often, no one is quite sure what the right pattern even is anymore.
Consistency Compounds
Every consistent decision reduces cognitive load. Naming. Folder structure. API shape. Error handling. If it's consistent, it becomes background noise. You don't have to think about it.
That means more brainpower available for solving real problems. It makes onboarding smoother. It increases confidence when refactoring. It reduces bugs.
Consistency is the invisible architecture that holds healthy systems together.
The Real Challenge: Getting People to Care
The hardest part isn’t writing consistent code, it’s getting your team to care about it. Consistency often feels like "extra process" or "slowing down." It can feel bureaucratic. But in reality, it’s about long-term speed. It's discipline.
It means calling out patterns during code review. It means documenting your decisions. It means resisting the temptation to "just ship it" when it breaks the mold.
Final Thought
Naming things and cache invalidation are real problems. But they’re isolated and often technical. Consistency is cultural. It’s the difference between a team that moves fast in the short term and one that scales in the long run.
So if you want a codebase that lasts, start with consistency. Make it a first-class concern.
It's not glamorous. It's not clever. But it's the most boring superpower you’ll ever have.
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