🎃 10 Scary Lines of Code I Wish I Never Wrote 💀

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Sylwia Laskowska

Ever opened your old project, looked at a line of code, and thought…

“Who the hell wrote this mess?”

…and then Git calmly whispered:

“It was you. Two years ago.” 😅

Been there. Many times.
At first, I used to cringe hard 😬, but eventually, I realized — that’s actually a good sign!
It means I’ve grown as a developer 👩‍💻 and that I’m writing (hopefully) less cursed code today.

So instead of crying over past monstrosities, let’s laugh at them together 😂
Here are some of my “legendary” mistakes — maybe you’ll recognize a few of your own.

💩 The Hall of Shame

1️⃣ text-align: left;
Because apparently, I thought that’s how you center things 😅

2️⃣ console.log('DEBUGGING...');
…still in production. Still haunting me 👻

3️⃣ if (this.isAdmin) { giveAllPermissions(); }
Because who needs security when you have trust? 💀

4️⃣ setTimeout(() => doSomething(), 10000);
A “temporary fix” from 2019 that’s still running strong 💪

5️⃣ border: 1px solid red;
The universal debugging tool™ 🔥

6️⃣ document.querySelector('#id').innerHTML = userInput
XSS? Never heard of her. 🙃

7️⃣ Array(10).fill({})
Ten objects, one reference. Ten bugs, one developer crying 😭

8️⃣ window.location.reload()
When in doubt — refresh it out 🤷‍♀️

9️⃣ style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100vw;height:100vh;"
My proudest “responsive” design moment 😭

🔟 git reset --hard HEAD~1
Didn’t even check what HEAD~1 was… instantly regretted 🪦

🫣 Bonus #11:

// quick fix for demo
That demo? 3 years ago. The fix? Still in production. 🧟‍♂️

💬 Your turn!
What about you — what’s your most cursed line of code? 😏
Share your shame below 👇 and let’s cry-laugh together like true devs 💻❤️

👋 I’m Sylwia, I break code so you don’t have to.
If you enjoy laughing at past bugs and learning from them — follow me here or on my Substack:
👉 https://sylwialask.substack.com/

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Sylwia Laskowska

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