[cryptica]

I think this points depends heavily on the complexity of the project. If the project is very complex (e.g. P2P, blockchain, distributed messaging, machine learning, ...) then you actually want engineers to think really hard about every line of code they write.

The best, most long-lasting code I ever wrote took a long time to write. Sometimes I have to think about a single small feature for multiple days before I begin to implement. Some foundational structural technical decisions require weeks of thinking and analyzing. It's the best way to guarantee that you don't have to come back to rewrite the code later.

When I was younger, I would refactor some of the foundation logic every few months as I added more changes on top. These days I almost never refactor the foundations. That extra time is totally worth it. It's very hard to come up with a good design.