Templates Can't Fit Everything

When Templates Work Against Us

A developer faced a paradox: he prepared an excellent template for job searching, but then realized it was completely unsuitable for a technical blog. It might seem like a strange turn of events, but it contains an important lesson about the nature of content and audience.

The problem was that a template ideal for a resume or cover letter doesn’t work at all for a blog. Why? Because they solve different problems for different audiences. A resume is a document where structure and brevity are essential. A blog is a place for stories, insights, and context.

Something similar happens when working with Git and source code management. Often developers use the same commit template for all projects without considering that different teams work differently. A commit message should be useful for future developers who will read the project history, not just a checkbox on a checklist.

Interesting fact: Git was created by Linus Torvalds in 2005 precisely because he was dissatisfied with existing version control systems. One of his goals was to make tracking history simple and straightforward. Good commit messages are part of this philosophy.

When we work with AI assistants (like Claude) to generate content, the same dilemma arises: you cannot apply one template to all tasks. API requests to models require specificity and context adapted to the concrete goal.

Conclusion: the best template is not a universal tool, but an adaptive approach. Each artifact (commit, blog post, API request, resume) requires its own style. The developer learned to distinguish contexts and choose tools for the task—this is far more valuable than a perfect template.

Why is Git so complex? Because it was created for version control, not for understanding 😄