Our most productive afternoon last month ended with a negative diff: −1,240 lines, +0.
No feature shipped. Nothing broke. The app just got faster, and the next change got easier.
Every line is a liability
Code isn't an asset you accumulate — it's a liability you maintain. Each line is something to test, secure, explain to the next engineer, and eventually change. The codebase that does the most with the least isn't lucky. It's edited.
Deletion is design
The senior move isn't adding the clever abstraction. It's noticing the three abstractions that quietly cancel each other out and having the nerve to remove them.
The best code is the code you never had to write. The second best is the code you were brave enough to delete.
We keep a running count of lines removed each quarter. It's the metric nobody brags about — and the one that predicts velocity better than almost any other.
What would your codebase look like if "delete" were a feature?