Do you have a coding mantra? Some phrase or saying (or question) that you repeat to yourself while coding?

In a recent rare moment of self-awareness while coding, I noticed a little voice repeating "How am I going to debug this? How am I going to debug this?" while my fingers were typing 

      ...
      my $html = $template->expand(\%bindings);
      return $html;
  }

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I stopped and looked at what I'd typed, and considered for a moment why I hadn't typed 
      return $template->expand(\%bindings);
  }

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or just 
      $template->expand(\%bindings);
  }

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The reason goes way, way back to having looked over the shoulder of a really good programmer early in my career. I asked him why he was seemingly wasting a short-lived variable, and he answered that he was always on the lookout for places where he would later need to place breakpoints to examine intermediate results while debugging, and that sometimes he had to make opportunities. He went on to explain that debugging time was part of overall productivity (duh, once you've gotten that point), and that planning for debugging kept debugging time down. It seemed like a really good explanation, and from then on I would mutter "How am I going to debug this?" to myself. Over time, that voice faded into the background, but it's still there, chanting away. The funny thing is that I rarely have to use breakpoints when debugging, even though I automatically make opportunities for them.

What is your programming mantra?

In reply to Programming Mantras by dws

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