[balamatom]

>Who is taking “because I said so” as a (first) reason to make an engineering decision with no justification?

Justifications, needing to say things, etc., are for the weak. The strong get away with shit. That's how you know they're strong!

Or at least that's what >50% of the people I've met throughout my life consider normal. Maddeningly, heartbreakingly, infuriatingly, that number seems even higher among computer programmers

[CoastalCoder]

I'm a fairly senior member of a development team whose programmers have a big range of skill levels.

One thing I've found personally rewarding is having to articulate why I believe certain designs / choices are bad ideas, and be ready to propose better alternatives.

If all of my team members were equally experienced, there would be much less need to do this. But it would probably mean atrophying the knowledge underlying my gut instincts, and not being so open to valid alternatives.

[sarchertech]

We have no widely accepted metrics for code quality, so almost everything in software beyond “does it work” is subjective. It’s opinions and taste all the way down.

If you ask why the vast majority of people have no answer other than “because I like it that way”.

[balamatom]

>“because I like it that way”

That'd be refreshingly honest.