[keyle]

I feel the world "gestalt" has been thrown around in your circles a little too heavy handed.

Who can afford to think like this? Anyone curious about the human brain.

If you're concerned about the time to design something well, I would take just as long designing a terrible solution to a problem!

Explaining with words why your design is the way it is isn't a waste of anyone's time, it's having a degree of confidence moving forward. It's having a healthy conversation about the said product.

If anything, knowing what you're doing and being able to justify decisions, leads to a quicker decision making and therefore more time for implementation.

A good design is thoughtful precisely to prevent re-work in the future. That's the point: understand, analyse, solve & apply.

Don't get me started on large companies and their design teams... Going from one design system to another, redesigning every 6 months, and never quite finishing... I've seen those and I'm too old for that.

I'd never imply that good design should be a road block or causing a late Friday evening of work; it takes just as long to implement a terrible design than a good one!

I am merely encouraging everyone to stay curious, and look into building some skills in a field that is timeless, unlike most software engineering fields, and henceforth worthy of your time.

[sfn42]

I read your comments and I think you come across as intelligent, thoughtful, knowledgeable and as someone who cares about doing a good job.

Most people aren't those things, certainly not all at once. Most people seem to me like they mostly care about collecting a paycheck. That was their motivation for their studies and it's their motivation for their employment. You see people talking about writing obscure code so others can't replace them, you see this guy above talking about redesigning an app to justify their work week.

I think these people who don't care are the same ones who make up all these excuses - we didn't do a good job because we didn't have time. We didnt do a good job because the client asked for a bad job. We didnt do a good job because if we do a bad job we have more job security.

Any time I see these types of excuses I judge the person making them to be someone I don't want to work with. I don't make these excuses. I always strive to write good and maintainable code. I take the time I need to do things right and if someone pushes me to take shortcuts I push back if I can or I find a compromise like fixing it later(and then actually do so). If a client asks me to build something I know will be bad I tell them and suggest a better approach.

In short, I take responsibility for my own work and I do not allow others to compromise the quality of my work. I do not respect people who blame others for their own shortcomings. Quality is less about constraints and more about having the ability and caring about it. Doing bad work generally isn't faster, if anything it's usually slower at least after a while. It's just that the people who do bad work needs an excuse to explain why their work is bad.

[keyle]

Yeah I'm with you on this.

When I contracted (for many years) I always told my employers at the time "my job is to return the value I cost, or more" and that if somehow I couldn't, I'd quit. I never had to quit. Sometimes I'd pivot internally as "it's what the company needs".

It was always a healthy relationship with my customers/employers.

I learnt early on that work is such a big part of life; why suck, or barely scrape the bottom of the barrel 40+ hours a week? Isn't that a complete waste of a life?

You might as well strive at being in the top 5% of "your people".

My business motto has always been "Find good people and do good work" - note that I don't say "the best people" or "amazing work". With age comes pragmatism; life isn't a self-help book. Having good people means that no matter the work, how terrible of a slog it is, you still wake up to work and look forward to the next week; even if this one stank! Surround yourself with people that care, that take it upon themselves to improve and that have your back (no genius psychopaths).

Sure I've come across a plethora of oxygen stealers and time robbers, and I could count on my right hand the people I'd chase up to work with again...

The key is to not let the bad apples ruin your experience (and sometimes, they're overwhelming all over, at every level, and you have no choice but to move on). Take pride in your work and ignore the bad apples. If the business is any good, they'll get weeded out. Constructive honesty works. And if you talk yourself out of job, it wasn't the one. A good dose of daily humour certainly helps.

Jobs in our industry, we change like we change cars. Often we get more jobs than cars actually. So don't get too precious about your first scratch...

Many CEO, CTO, manager, whatever, will recognise quality in their people if they see it. Weasels have a limited shelf time. No matter how good they're at lying, they're scared of people who confidently do a good job quietly. Eventually they'll stand naked in the spotlight without any excuses.

Any job worth doing, is worth doing well - my father said, he was always inspired by the Japanese culture.

When I found myself in a daily slog, I found that routine was extremely important. That walk to coffee. That walk at lunch time. That little detour during commute. Whatever could be small wins throughout the day, I'd take it. It helped the drudged work where I was stuck in for a while, because having nothing to look forward to, is depression.

Work is a marathon, not a race; even if the industry wants you to believe that you're missing out, you're too slow, etc. As long as you can sleep with yourself at night, and it brings the pay check, strive to do your best in any condition and accept the things you cannot change. But don't let bad people define your work.