Comment by astrobe_
1 day ago
Companies can sacrifice every thing for "time to market" - optimization, maintainability, security and safety even - but underestimate the costs of doing that. It is actually more a marketing choice than an economic choice.
One can be skeptical about the implied statement and leadership/management knows what it is doing beyond delivering at the (arbitrarily) set time. One definition of Quality is to satisfy a need entirely at the lowest cost in the shortest time, but more often that not, the last term gets 90% of the attention.
> but underestimate the costs of doing that
Do they? I’ve been fighting against the tide for years until I understood that all of quality this and quality that doesn’t matter. Sure, it sucks to be on the receiving end of buggy software, but this where you vote with your money. At work? Finish the task with least amount of resources and move on.
It’s about momentum. Once you lose it the wheels come off. And at first that’s shipping product, but later on it’s adding new features to the minefield you’ve laid. Until you start clearing the mines your velocity continues to drop.
> Until you start clearing the mines your velocity continues to drop.
I've been doing this for decades, it's never a problem. Either velocity tanks in which case there's a short period where company invests into improving it, or people leave.
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At work the buyer is not the user, so be sure to hound the buyer when he saddles you with crap.
> Finish the task with least amount of resources and move on
which is now claude code...
They underestimate how long it takes to turn the boat when lowering operational costs becomes the best avenue to improving revenue.
I think it’s like switching CEOs when the company goes out of startup mode into grownup company. What got you here won’t keep you here.
> Companies can sacrifice every thing for "time to market" - optimization, maintainability, security and safety even - but underestimate the costs of doing that
If you're working at a company who disregards safety and security good luck getting them to care about clean code and efficiency.