Maintainable

Evan Phoenix (@evanphx), CEO of Miren, joins Robby to explore the subtle but powerful difference between writing code that works and writing code that explains itself. They discuss the role of clarity in maintainable systems, why splitting a monolith can backfire, and what developers can learn from artists and tradespeople alike.Episode Highlights[00:01:30] What Makes Software Maintainable?Evan defines maintainability as how easily a newcomer can make a change with minimal context.[00:02:30] Why Business Logic Should Be ObviousA discussion on domain knowledge leakage and abstracting rules like “can we sell today?”[00:05:00] Programming 'Mouthfeel' and the Trap of PrefactoringEvan explains why prematurely optimizing for reuse can lead to unnecessary complexity.[00:07:00] When to Extract Logic: The Copy/Paste SignalA practical approach to identifying reusable components by spotting repeated code.[00:08:00] Technical Debt as a Reflection of Cognitive LoadWhy forgetting your own code doesn’t automatically mean it