--- title: I Deleted 5,000 Lines of Code — And My Project Got Better description: A developer shares how deleting nearly 5,000 lines of code improved their project's performance, readability, and maintainability. The post argues that good... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-deleted-5-000-lines-of-code-and-my-project-got-better-y22ri4uko twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I Deleted 5,000 Lines of Code — And My Project Got Better | daily.dev og:description: A developer shares how deleting nearly 5,000 lines of code improved their project's performance, readability, and maintainability. The post argues that good... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-deleted-5-000-lines-of-code-and-my-project-got-better-y22ri4uko og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/y22Ri4UKo.png og:image:alt: I Deleted 5,000 Lines of Code — And My Project Got Better og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I Deleted 5,000 Lines of Code — And My Project Got Better **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A developer shares how deleting nearly 5,000 lines of code improved their project's performance, readability, and maintainability. The post argues that good programming isn't about writing more code but knowing what to remove. It covers common sources of code bloat — duplicate functions, unused variables, dead files, old experiments — and advocates for a habit of regular cleanup after each feature. The key insight: fewer lines mean fewer bugs, easier debugging, and more confidence when making changes. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [A Great Programmer Removes, Doesn’t Add](https://daily.dev/posts/a-great-programmer-removes-doesn-t-add-jwx9klioe) · Codemotion · 142 upvotes · 30 comments - [I stopped asking AI to build features and started asking it to remove code](https://daily.dev/posts/i-stopped-asking-ai-to-build-features-and-started-asking-it-to-remove-code-o1bsaeeic) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Clean Code Is Not the Same as Clear Code: Comments Were Never the Problem](https://daily.dev/posts/clean-code-is-not-the-same-as-clear-code-comments-were-never-the-problem-6lmauekpv) · DEV · 75 upvotes · 14 comments --- Tags: [#technical-debt](https://daily.dev/tags/technical-debt) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-deleted-5-000-lines-of-code-and-my-project-got-better-y22ri4uko) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I Deleted 5,000 Lines of Code — And My Project Got Better","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-deleted-5-000-lines-of-code-and-my-project-got-better-y22ri4uko","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-deleted-5-000-lines-of-code-and-my-project-got-better-y22ri4uko"},"datePublished":"2026-07-23T08:37:57.467Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T18:27:40.636Z","description":"A developer shares how deleting nearly 5,000 lines of code improved their project's performance, readability, and maintainability. 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