There is a rhythm to problem-solving, not unlike the rhythm of working a stubborn tree. First you toss the rope: quick, light, hoping to catch the higher branch. If fortune smiles, the rope holds, and the tree bends the way you want. But when the toss fails, you climb — hand over hand, sweat and bark, fastening the rope where you know it will hold.
So it is with code. We tossed our rope with bash and awk, hoping to catch the branch of GDELT’s odd files. Three tosses, four, five — clever throws, good technique. But the branch slipped each time. At last, we climbed with C, deliberate and lean, carving a parser that did not hope, but knew.
The lesson is older than silicon and sharper than any compiler switch: never be content with borrowed or generated code unless you could, in principle, write it yourself. For it is not the elegance of the toss that makes the tree fall where you wish, but the climb and the knot you tied with your own hands.
Generated code may be tossed rope. Unless you can climb and tie it yourself, you do not truly control where the tree will fall.
— Bugsy Danger Moon