The Dark Side of 'Clean Code' That Nobody Talks About

"Clean Code" by Robert C. Martin is treated like gospel in our industry. And I get it — the book genuinely improved how millions of developers think about code. But after 4 years of writing code professionally, I've come to a controversial conclusion: Blindly following "Clean Code" principles is making our codebases worse. Before you sharpen your pitchforks, hear me out. The Problem With Small Functions Clean Code says: "Functions should do one thing. They should do it well. They should do it only." Sounds great in theory. In practice, it creates this: // "Clean" version - 8 functions across 3 files function processOrder ( order ) { validateOrder ( order ); const total = calculateTotal ( order ); const discount = applyDiscount ( total , order . coupon ); const tax = calculateTax ( discount , order . region ); const finalAmount = addTax ( discount , tax ); chargeCustomer ( order . customer , finalAmount ); sendConfirmation ( order . customer , order ); updateInventory ( order . items );