Code Quality is Over Rated
Let me be blunt -- I absolutely love neat, standardized, well-written code. In fact, I love it so much that I actually spend waste waaay too much time focused on my code quality. It was only a couple weeks ago that I realized that I wasn't actually accomplishing anything. Oddly enough, rewriting the same application, webpage, documention over and over and over again left me farther behind than where I originally began. I am a student at the moment and I have been informally taught
- Make it work
- Modify for usability
- Add features
Surprisingly simple when you look at it from a distance. When you actually get down to it, it's very difficult to force yourself to not worry about the quality. It reminds me of my patterns class. It was stressed that you shouldn't try to force a pattern where it really is not needed. Do not go randomly using patterns unless it solves a problem you have. Sometimes we over design and in the end we're not happy with it anyway. An iterative approach seems to make more sense to me and I think many will agree. If we design iteratively why should we not code iteratively? As long as it does not jeopardize security, I see nothing wrong with it.
With that said, throw caution to the wind and forget about those pesky details once in a while. It will make your programming experience more enjoyable as well as help you focus on the goal at hand.