Learning to love other people’s code.

Working with legacy code you didn't write is a common developer challenge. A practical mindset shift involves asking 'why' before judging past decisions. Treating technical debt as archaeological clues, examining commit history and old tickets, and understanding the context of the era when code was written all help uncover the reasoning behind past choices. Approaching inherited code with empathy — recognizing constraints like time, budget, and skill level — leads to more informed decisions about whether to refactor, modernize, or leave things as they are.