---
title: "The Story of Max, a Real Programmer"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-story-of-max-a-real-programmer-c7nxxlbsk
source_url: https://incoherency.co.uk/blog/stories/the-story-of-max.html
type: article
source: "Hacker News"
published: 2025-07-03T14:03:55.293Z
updated: 2025-07-03T14:04:22.050Z
tags: ["webdev", "golang", "php"]
reading_time: 7
upvotes: 76
comments: 6
language: en
---

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# The Story of Max, a Real Programmer

**[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 7 min read · 76 upvotes · 6 comments

## Summary

A developer reflects on rewriting a 15-year-old PHP image hosting application in Go, only to discover that the original simple PHP code was superior despite being written by a teenager. The original 185-line PHP script proved more maintainable and elegant than the 305-line Go replacement, highlighting how simplicity often trumps sophisticated engineering. The story explores the value of straightforward, single-file solutions over complex, structured codebases, ultimately deciding to keep the original PHP version running.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://incoherency.co.uk/blog/stories/the-story-of-max.html>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@zildeus** · 6 upvotes

> yeah because who needs error handling , security or scaleability.

**@xidib78169** · 1 upvotes

> I looked at both codes, but I didn't think the Go implementation was no better, at least.

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---

Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#golang](https://daily.dev/tags/golang), [#php](https://daily.dev/tags/php)

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