Happy Chinese New Year

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year. As a Singaporean Chinese, this is the biggest festival many families in Singapore celebrate. There are many traditions that has to be followed during the festival. Like having reunion dinner during new year eve. Wearing red as a sign of prosperity and luck. Many of them make sense, are of them doesn’t make much sense but were followed as a form of tradition that were passed down from generations. Maybe it made sense hundreds or thousand years ago, but it certainly doesn’t now. The form of the practice is being passed down, but not the intention or the reason.

Like these tradition or practice, many practice in software is being passed down, from our predecessor. And many times, it is the form that is being passed down and not the underlining intention. If we were to follow it blindly, we miss the true intention that is meant to help us.