We obsess over making code last. Maybe we should obsess over making it leave gracefully. There's a quote that's been living rent-free in my head for years: "Write code that is easy to delete, not easy to extend." — Tef, programming is terrible The first time I read it, I pushed back. Isn't the whole point to write code that survives ? That scales? That you can build on top of? Then I spent a weekend trying to rip out a logging library from a three-year-old codebase. It had quietly spread into 40 files. Removing it felt like surgery on a patient who had grown bones around a sponge. The Lie We Tell Ourselves When we write code, we tell ourselves a flattering story: this will be here in five years, so I should make it robust, reusable, and extensible. But the data doesn't support this story. Most features get changed within months. Many get cut entirely.…