--- title: Refactoring with Convergence Rules | daily.dev description: A structured approach to refactoring called 'convergence rules' is presented as an alternative to big-leap intuition or paralysis. The three rules are: select... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/refactoring-with-convergence-rules-6ofmsa39f twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Refactoring with Convergence Rules | daily.dev og:description: A structured approach to refactoring called 'convergence rules' is presented as an alternative to big-leap intuition or paralysis. The three rules are: select... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/refactoring-with-convergence-rules-6ofmsa39f og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/6ofMSa39f.png og:image:alt: Refactoring with Convergence Rules 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. # Refactoring with Convergence Rules **[Ruby Flow](https://daily.dev/sources/rubyflow)** · 15 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A structured approach to refactoring called 'convergence rules' is presented as an alternative to big-leap intuition or paralysis. The three rules are: select the most similar code pieces, find the smallest difference between them, and make the simplest change to remove that difference — repeating until duplicates can be eliminated. The technique is demonstrated step-by-step on a Ruby time-ago formatter, showing how replacing a literal `1` with a variable reference raises abstraction level, how to name emerging concepts (discovering `unit` rather than the incorrect `pluralize`), and how to introduce method arguments incrementally while keeping tests green at every step. Crucially, the rules also detect false abstractions: when extracting a `quantity` concept forces a `nil` return and moves a conditional rather than removing it, that signals the abstraction is wrong — two distinct concepts were mistaken for one. The post connects the technique to Open/Closed and Liskov Substitution principles, and argues that discovered abstractions are typically better than designed-upfront ones. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [DRY Is the Most Misunderstood Rule in Programming](https://daily.dev/posts/dry-is-the-most-misunderstood-rule-in-programming-ithr21mpi) · Milan Jovanović · 11 upvotes · 0 comments - [Start With Ugly Code](https://daily.dev/posts/start-with-ugly-code-k1ikjfcaw) · Ruby Flow · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why the Best Software Advice Is the Hardest to Follow](https://daily.dev/posts/why-the-best-software-advice-is-the-hardest-to-follow-q1ctdahcj) · DEV · 39 upvotes · 5 comments - [Rewrite with Confidence: Validating Business Rules Through Isolated Testing](https://daily.dev/posts/rewrite-with-confidence-validating-business-rules-through-isolated-testing-dhprnbw12) · arkency · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Worth the Squeeze](https://daily.dev/posts/worth-the-squeeze-rbj2l7p7o) · Gusto Engineering · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#general-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/general-programming), [#tdd](https://daily.dev/tags/tdd) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/refactoring-with-convergence-rules-6ofmsa39f) ```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":"Refactoring with Convergence Rules","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/refactoring-with-convergence-rules-6ofmsa39f","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/refactoring-with-convergence-rules-6ofmsa39f"},"datePublished":"2026-07-14T00:18:41.274Z","dateModified":"2026-07-14T00:32:24.290Z","description":"A structured approach to refactoring called 'convergence rules' is presented as an alternative to big-leap intuition or paralysis. 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