Daniel Pietzsch

Programming - it’s a little bit like cooking

Imagine you have friends over for dinner. You’re cooking.

Everything is going to plan. There are just a few minor issues: the Mise en place is taking a little longer than expected, the sauce will just not reduce as quickly as you’d like. But you still manage to plate up — maybe not quite at the time you originally wanted to, but still early enough, so no-one got impatient.

You are having a great evening. Everyone tells you it’s delicious. One person needed to sprinkle some extra salt on their dish. But that’s ok. Tastes are different.

Now the party is over. Your friends left.

You’re very happy with the evening and the food you have cooked. But you’re not quite done yet, unfortunately. The kitchen is a mess. All these peels are still lying around. There are dirty dishes and equipment everywhere.
If you’re planning to cook in your kitchen ever again, you should better clean up. And you better do it right now. Otherwise it’s going to smell, and it’ll be much harder to wash up. And who would want to deal with a dirty kitchen anyway, where you’d have to move things out of the way or clean up first, right before you can cook your next meal?

Of course, the kitchen won’t look that messy each time you cook. You’ll sometimes manage to clean up in between the cooking, because you have enough time, it’s a simple dish or one you’re comfortable with, or you just got more organised and experienced.

But the bottom line is: the kitchen needs to be clean in the end.