2010-08-26

When to Forget

It is well-known that we programmers fill our brains with a lot of complex details while we're working on a problem in code. Some time later, due to our sadly finite brains, we go through the process of forgetting most of these details. Paul Graham, in his essay "Holding a Program in One's Head" summarizes this process nicely: "You can start to treat parts as black boxes once you feel confident you've fully explored them."

This forgetting is important! Software is complicated, and trying to hold all of the details of even a modest body of code will easily outstrip any programmer's mental capacity. We must forget things! But when? When is it safe to forget the details? When is it reasonable to feel confident you've fully explored them?