Reality: Your employer doesn't pay you to write 'right' software, they want a deliverable that works in IE by end of day tomorrow and for the life of you, you can't figure out where half the elements are actually displaying.
Reality: it is far easier to iterate on software that’s clean and mostly correct than it is to do on software that is riddled with hacks, gotchas, footguns, and long-distance side effects.
It’s extremely depressing working with “senior” engineers who’ve spent an entire career with the above mentality, who have missed out on any chance at ever learning how to actually engineer software for reliability and maintainability. Their inability to do so reflects on a lack of practice rather than some sort of fundamental impossibility. Which sadly seems to be a widespread misconception these days.
It’s extremely depressing working with “senior” engineers who’ve spent an entire career with the above mentality, who have missed out on any chance at ever learning how to actually engineer software for reliability and maintainability. Their inability to do so reflects on a lack of practice rather than some sort of fundamental impossibility. Which sadly seems to be a widespread misconception these days.