[JohnFen]

I guess it's a difference in perspective?

The reason I make my code the best it can be isn't to please my employer or get some sort of recognition. It doesn't matter to me if the code is never viewed by human eyes again.

I do the best work I can because of a sense of pride of workmanship and personal accomplishment. Whether or not the company I work for recognizes that doesn't enter into it.

In this sense, anyway. There's a different angle that overlaps this: if I really think the company doesn't give a shit about the quality of their products/services, then I'm quitting that company because I want my employer to be at least as interested in quality as I am.

[shittycoder]

What if you do not have enough time to do you best work... Problem isn't about caring, problem is when you care it takes time and when it takes time nobody gives a shit, because they do not care good software but just ship and get results. Also when you have a codebase full of fixmes or bad code it is not easy to adding a single line sometimes because 'technical depth'.

[JohnFen]

> What if you do not have enough time to do you best work

Early in my career, I'd just do the best work I could given whatever the constraints were.

Later in my career, once I grew a bit of weight to throw around, I'd push back and say that the deadline doesn't allow for quality production, given the scope of the task. Then I'd offer various options to narrow the scope such that good work becomes possible.

Even then, sometimes reality is not what we would prefer and I end up falling back onto "the best I can do given the constraints". Good engineering isn't developing some platonic ideal of excellent code, because there are always constraints. If not time, then something else. Good engineering is developing the best possible solution given the constraints that have to be worked with.

[shittycoder]

Thanks for the comments.