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The Copy-Paste Mindset
Creating a bordered box around your own knowledge is ruining your potential. Screw job titles, we engineers are here to help our customers by...
July 8, 2025
4 min read
Jordy van Vorselen
Best PracticesSoftware EngineeringMindset
As we head towards the end of the year, an idea that has been lingering with me for quite a while sprang right back into my mind. I could never fully grasp it, feel it, or articulate it correctly.
But today - one day after a presentation about HTMX by one of my colleagues - it finally clicked.
The box
Throughout history we have become more technologically advanced. In recent years, the consumption of content in all its forms have reached its peak. All but the oldest people in society are consuming digital content in one way or another. Some of us consume the most obvious forms of content like being on TikTok or Instagram, while others consume content like certain podcasts, forums or books. Most of it is related to one certain subject, one certain niche. So much that we, unconsciously, begin to identify with it.
The funny thing is that we tend to despise “the other side”, while simultaneously doing the same thing - but just in a slightly different way.
Because of this, many of us have unknowingly been developing a copy-paste mindset. It's hidden in plain sight, but visible, as what we consume impacts everything we produce. People unconsciously categorize themselves into subcategories and everyone in those subcategories read, think and look the same. But not exactly the same.
It's kind of similar to equality in JavaScript :wink::
[] === []
> false
[] == []
> false
[] == ""
> true
