Comment by srean

It's always a balance.

Good designs do not happen in a vacuum but informed with knowledge of at least the outlines of the environment.

One can have a breakfast pursuing an idea -- let me spill some sticky milk on the dining table, who cares, I will clean up if it becomes a problem later.

Another is, it's not much of an overbearing constraint not to make a mess with spilt milk in the first place, maybe it will not be a big bother later, but it's not hurting me much now, to be not be sloppy, so let me be a little hygienic.

There's a balance between making a mess and cleaning up and not making a mess in the first place. The other extreme is to be so defensive about the possibility of creating a mess that it paralyses progress.

The sweet spot is somewhere between the extremes and having the ball-park numbers in the back of one's mind helps with that. It informs about the environment.