[brwr]

The day I learned about premature generalization is that day my speed as a developer jumped by a factor of three. When you're generalizing, it's easy to overlook how much time that takes.

My rule these days is that, in most cases, I shouldn't generalize before the same code exists in three places. Why not two? In my experience, things that are done twice aren't necessarily done three times. But things that are done three times are likely to be done a fourth.

[zachrose]

Also, when you've got something that's the same in two places it's hard to tell if it's really the same concept or just a "rhyme" that might later evolve into two distinct things.