Follow Instincts And Resist Urges

In software development, as in life, often we have a conflict between the short-term urge to do things (like declaring a fixed-sized buffer) to save time or effort, and the instincts we have developed over the years that remind us why it's a bad idea. Often we give into the urges and ignore our instincts. They may both feel "right" at the time, but the simpler way is often to follow the urge.

Therefore:

Resist your urges, they are usually a bad idea.

Follow your instincts, you developed them to protect yourself.

How do you tell the difference? The urge makes your life easier now. The instinct makes your life easier later

I hate to be a LanguageLawyer, but instincts are not developed, you are born with them. Perhaps a better phrase would be FollowYourConscience?.

Well, until we can agree on where instincts come from, and if humans have instincts at all (some say we don't), I'll stick with instinct - I agree it might not be the perfect word, but until they solve the first two problems we won't get a better word.

Could one say that the 'instinct' in this case is to do the thing that you know will hurt less in the long run? Or is that too much of a stretch / too general? --cwillu