You write code in a state of pure flow, feeling like a genius, everything just clicking into place. Then you search for "if" in your file and find 3,338 matches. That moment of existential dread when you realize your "elegant" solution is basically just nested if-statements all the way down. No design patterns, no polymorphism, just raw conditional chaos. But hey, it compiles, so technically you're a software engineer. The astronaut pointing a gun at the other astronaut saying "always has been" is chef's kiss here - because deep down you knew. You always knew your code was held together by conditional logic and prayer.