The Zen of Proverbs

20 rules of thumb for writing better software.

• Optimize for simplicity first
• Write code for humans, not computers
• Reading is more important than writing
• Any style is fine, as long as it’s black
• There should be one way to do it, but seriously this time
• Hide the sharp knives
• Changing the rules is better than adding exceptions
• Libraries are better than frameworks
• Transitive dependencies are a problem
• Dynamic runtime dependencies are a bigger problem
• The surface area of an API is a liability
• Returning early is a good thing
• Plain text is usually best
• Compiler errors are better than runtime errors
• Runtime errors are better than bugs
• Tooling is better than documentation
• Documentation is better than nothing
• Configuration sucks, but so does convention
• The cost of building a feature is its smallest cost
• Types are one honking great idea — let’s do more of those!

Homage and references

• The Zen of Python
• The Go Proverbs
• The Zen of Zig
• Unix Philosophy
• Sharp Knives

Any color the customer wants, as long as it’s black.

– Henry Ford (maybe)

Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.

―- Martin Fowler