In academic research, particularly in HCI and visualization, the code you write serves as validation for your ideas, not as the contribution itself. While implementations may take months to build, they typically become obsolete within a decade as frameworks, APIs, and languages evolve. The lasting value lies in the abstract ideas, design principles, and theoretical frameworks that can be reimplemented in future platforms. Researchers should separate their core contributions from implementation details when writing papers, focusing on ideas that will outlive specific codebases.