[sanderjd]

FWIW I'm a (geriatric) millennial, and we were totally taught all that same stuff. And yeah, it totally feels important to me to have this mental model up and down the layers. But I also do wonder whether we're just wrong about that, merely falling prey to nostalgia.

My messy answer is that for many projects it's either neutral or an actual hindrance - I have to remind myself to pragmatically not care about stuff that won't matter for years at the project's expected growth rate - but for other projects it's very useful. I think the way to go is to seek out those kinds of projects, in order to avoid frustration all around.

[shanusmagnus]

Always important to be on guard for things amenable to self-congratulation. At least, I sure need to be on guard against it :)