Clean Code's Impact with Uncle Bob

Years later Robert's timeless advice on software craftsmanship is still a breath of fresh air.

Recently we published an episode of Inside iOS Dev with a guest I thought I’d never meet - Uncle Bob!

Robert “Uncle Bob” Martin is one of the gurus I have followed over the years, along with people like Kent Beck, Martin Fowler, and others who were there to create the Agile Manifesto.

I started my software development career as a freelancer and later a consultant, making MVP iOS and Android apps (and backends for them) for entrepreneurs and startups in Silicon Valley. In the early days, I struggled with the dichotomy between moving fast on a project to deliver it on time versus maintaining good code quality for long term health and longevity of the applications I was building.

The dilemmas about doing the right thing and communicating with clients under deadline pressure were too acute. It got worse as my consultancy grew and as I started to work with other developers and teams. Uncle Bob’s teachings helped serve as my guiding principles with the push and pull of these issues.

I first came across Uncle Bob’s lectures on YouTube in the early days of my career. They struck a chord with me - the message of craftsmanship, professionalism, courage, communication, and doing the right thing all deeply resonated with me. At the time, he seemed to be the only one who emphasized that the quality of your code really matters. Back then, it felt like only a small group of coders were up against prevailing mediocrity and incompetence in the development community. To be honest, sometimes it still feels this way.

Here are some quotes from Bob’s books illustrating his messages:

• “The only way to go fast, is to go well” (Clean Architecture)

• “Of course bad code can be cleaned up. But it’s very expensive” (Clean Code)

• “One difference between a smart programmer and a professional programmer is that the professional understands that clarity is king. Professionals use their powers for good and write code that others can understand” (Clean Code)

Bob’s teachings inspired me to look at coding as a craft, the process of coding as craftsmanship, to take pride in your own work and to have the courage to speak up and say no. These lessons grew me so much more as a professional developer.

I never though I’d meet Uncle Bob, let alone interview him on a podcast.

Now, years later, I still find his advice to be a breath of fresh air. Just like it was a joy to watch his lectures, interviewing him was great in that it helped to confirm and vindicate me in my thinking and frustrations. However, I consistently find that there will always be people who oppose good advice, like comments under this snippet - if you are a fan of the Silicon Valley show, this goes deeper than the typical tabs versus spaces debate :)

The struggle to write better code and improve our craftsmanship versus giving in to deadlines or corner cutting will never quite go away, but as long as we continue to set and maintain high standards for ourselves there is hope.