[kmoser]

While it's true that systems tend to be documented poorly, I think the article downplays the value of good documentation. Good docs describe everything that went into the system, from business requirements to implementation details, including things that were tried and abandoned (either because they didn't work or because business requirements changed), including code changes (e.g. "changed from DB table to in-memory array for speed; may need to change back if array grows too large").

This historical documentation, including historical codebase (think Git repo), is highly valuable. True, a new developer without the institutional knowledge is at a disadvantage, but that's the entire point of good code and good docs: so the next devs can pick up as efficiently as possible if/when they're called in.