The problem is those who create the messes to need that advice probably will take that advice and create even bigger messes
In practice, pithy adages don't get us any closer to sanity
Really the only news you can use is
1. Try to modify things with code you didn't write by not simply throwing parts away
2. If you think it's really difficult to deal with, figure out if other people agree with you.
3. understand why everybody thinks this
4. If you are doing that in your own code, then stop doing that.
You have to viscerally understand why a practice is bad and how doing it affects other people.
This is how you can intuitively avoid such practices in the future. Not through things that rhyme or acronyms that spell words but through social intelligence. It's fundamentally behavior
In practice, pithy adages don't get us any closer to sanity
Really the only news you can use is
1. Try to modify things with code you didn't write by not simply throwing parts away
2. If you think it's really difficult to deal with, figure out if other people agree with you.
3. understand why everybody thinks this
4. If you are doing that in your own code, then stop doing that.
You have to viscerally understand why a practice is bad and how doing it affects other people.
This is how you can intuitively avoid such practices in the future. Not through things that rhyme or acronyms that spell words but through social intelligence. It's fundamentally behavior