[harrisonjackson]

> We should also not be quick to blame the individual for perpetuating this

This part at least, I agree with. Whenever I see code like this it is a symptom of a larger product development issue.

- unreasonable deadlines

- overpromising to external clients

- no coding standards (enforced by linter and code review)

- no automated testing

- no code review process

- using new languages/technologies without first gaining some experience about best practices

Early on, a startup definitely needs engineers that are going to work autonomously, cut corners as needed, not be a perfectionist, etc. The technical cofounder/CTO/team leader should still be setting up a culture of high quality code. Coding styles and some automated testing make it easier to move quickly and ramp up new team members or for old team members to circle back to old code.