> Back in 2015 I was suspicious of abstractions and big on tests and version control. Code seemed awash in bad abstractions, while tests and versions seemed like the key advances of the 2000s.
> In effect I stopped thinking about version control. Giving up tests and versions, I ended up with a much better program.
> Version control kept me attached to the past. Both were counter-productive. It took a major reorientation to let go of them.
Best guess, a reflexive need to keep diffs as small as possible. Personally I think this is a completely wrong mindset, having version control is what allows you to go wild because you can always use the version from before a crazy refactor - and if it goes wrong you can even keep it around on a branch for reference later on with a second attempt.
Your quotes seem to reinforce parent's assertion he's not talking about version control in the form of tooling but some kind of versioning in the code itself: "...while tests and versions..."
> Back in 2015 I was suspicious of abstractions and big on tests and version control. Code seemed awash in bad abstractions, while tests and versions seemed like the key advances of the 2000s.
> In effect I stopped thinking about version control. Giving up tests and versions, I ended up with a much better program.
> Version control kept me attached to the past. Both were counter-productive. It took a major reorientation to let go of them.