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<?php

function getObject($id) {
    $object = null;

    // TODO Do we need to validate username?
    $objects = $this->db->retrieveForUsername($this->username);

    // FIXME Write `retrieveForIdAndUsername` instead of iterating here
    foreach ($objects as $o) {
        if ($o->id() == $id) {
            $object = $o;
            break;
        }
    }

    return $object;
}

This shouldn’t happen. I’m not talking about the comically bad code – it’s a contrived example, but it proves the point – but about the little “notes” left by whoever committed this.

Do we need to validate the username? Probably. Find out, and take the necessary action. If you know your codebase well, it should take about ten seconds to know the answer.

The FIXME is a bit more time-consuming, but the payoff is greater. If you leave this FIXME, I’m going to assume one of two things: you’re a lazy programmer, or you’re a bad programmer. You’re lazy because you can’t be bothered to write something correctly or you’re bad because you don’t know how to write it correctly¹.

Of course, use TODO or FIXME while you’re developing to keep a list of tasks that you have to finish before your feature is complete. Just don’t commit them to where other developers can see them and certainly don’t merge them to trunk.

If you’re lazy with that code now, there’s no way you’re going to overcome that laziness and come back to fix it later.