🧠 Knowing When to Copy-Paste Is Also an Art 🎨

As junior developers, we’re constantly bombarded with advice from all directions:

❌ "Don’t repeat yourself!"
❌ "Avoid copy-paste coding!"
❌ "Use loops, maps, functions – be clever!"

And I took that very seriously. Like, maybe a bit too seriously. 😅

The Hustle to Be a "Cool" Dev 🧑‍💻

In my projects, I went above and beyond to avoid repetition. Even if a simple copy-paste would’ve worked just fine, I would twist my logic into a pretzel 🥨 using map, reduce, and whatever else I could find on YouTube tutorials just to prove:

"I’m not a repetitive coder. I’m different. I’m cool 😎."

But let’s be real – deep down, I just wanted my seniors at work to think I’m smart.

The Wake-Up Call 🔔

One day, while my senior was reviewing my code, he paused and looked confused.

👨‍💼: "Why are you doing this hard stuff?"
👦 (me): "What hard stuff?"
👨‍💼: "These weird loops and logic... it’s too complicated."
👦: "But… we’re not supposed to repeat code, right?"
👨‍💼: "Says who?"
👦: "Uhh… everyone?"

Then he dropped a truth bomb 💣 on me that I’ll never forget:

"You're writing your program. Do what makes things easy for you.
We program to make things simple, not complicated.
The client wants a working product – they don’t care if you used forEach, map, or handwritten each line.
Make the product cool, not your code.
So do the easy thing. Make it work."

That Hit Hard. 🫠

He was right.

I realized I was coding for validation, not for clarity. I was trying to impress, not solve. And worst of all, I was over-engineering something simple because I feared being called "repetitive."

But here’s the truth 👇

✨ Sometimes Being Repetitive Is Okay

You’re still learning.
You’re building something that works.
You’re meeting the requirements.
That’s enough.

Not everything needs to be "optimized" or "abstracted" from day one. Over time, you’ll naturally refactor things as the project grows. But early on?

🔁 A little copy-paste never hurt anybody. 😉

Final Thoughts 💭

• Learn every day. Stay hungry. 🍽️
• Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself when it makes sense.
• Write code that works and makes your life easier.
• Impress your future self with clean, understandable logic – not your current team with unnecessary cleverness.

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🙌 Thanks for reading. If you’ve ever fallen into the trap of “over-engineering to impress,” drop a 🧠 in the comments and let’s talk!