This is a seemingly trivial question but one that I have been thinking about for a while. Is it possible to come up with a completely generic solution, without having first gone the non-generic route? Let me ask another question. Will the initial stages in any project deliver enough ‘generic-ness‘? The reason I ask and say this is because in my experience a generic system cannot be achieved if you haven’t worked through its non-generic counterpart. Why is it then that we as developers always want to improve and rework our code? Is it because we have had time to think about the solution, creating a better understanding of what problem the solution is trying to solve, and now that a better understanding exists you can look at your code easily and go hmmm, lets rather try this approach and see what happens. I often find myself going through my code trying to explain each line to myself, because in theory you should understand your own code, right? On these odd occasions that I go through my code a few times I do get to see ways of better structuring my code, but it usually couples itself with a better understanding of the business paradigm.