Build something new every time

When you work on a project, think, "How can I create something so that I never have to re-write this same program again?"

For example, say you are asked to setup a process that retrieves a file from a ftp site, reads the file and updates a database. Instead of writing something that just does the job, you should try to write a generic ftp retriever, a generic file reader, and a generic database updater.

Then you data-drive every piece of the process to deliver a solution for this specific problem. When you need to work on a new (yet similar) project in the future, you just have to change the configuration and data-drive your next process.

If you follow this practice, things may initially take longer to get done. It's much harder to write generic code. It's possible that you'll never reuse this generic code again, which means you wasted your time. But I think it's more likely that if you needed to do something once, you'll need to do it again.

So, you may or may not be more productive. But I think you'd in general be happier, because writing new programs is good for you. It will force you to think and learn. You won't get bored by the tedium of doing the same thing over and over and over again ...

I guess what I am getting at is simplay another way of saying keep things DRY, and save your key strokes for something new.