Why I Have Given Up on Coding Standards | Richard Rodger
The author argues that formal coding standards are counterproductive and based on flawed reasoning rooted in developers' own ego and need for control. He traces how well-meaning programmers who internalize best practices often become dogmatic managers imposing rigid rules that don't actually improve outcomes, and contends that trusting skilled developers to make their own judgments about code quality produces better results than constraining them with standards. At his company nearForm, he abandoned coding standards entirely, instead relying on developers' professional judgment to write clean code according to context-specific needs.