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# The 5 Surprising Lessons I Learned About Developing Software
- URL: https://nolongerset.com/lessons-learned/
- Published: 2023-03-31T00:45:12.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-08T12:50:47.000Z
- Description: Many of the things I thought I knew about writing software were not only wrong, but often the exact opposite of the truth.
- Author: Mike Wolfe
- Tags: Commentary, #Import 2026-05-20 02:59

As a young developer, I was certain about several things.

I thought that writing code was the hardest part about being a software developer, that it didn't really matter what I named things, and that eking a few milliseconds of performance out of a procedure justified sacrificing readability.

It turns out I was wrong about all of those things.

## Mike's Lessons Learned

- It's harder to read code than to write it.
- Writing code is the easiest part of developing software.
- It requires more skill to maintain an existing application than to write one from scratch.
- Readability trumps performance 99% of the time.
- Naming is hard.