Comment by jwsteigerwalt

My guess, based on my own and closely observed experiences, is that you can take a developer’s project history and carve out two pretty distinct categories that have huge significance: (1) projects they are most proud of and (2) projects that have the largest value/impact. I know for myself there is very little overlap in those groups.

The former being dominated by bespoke things that worked better than anything available at that time, but filled a tiny niche: “not using the platform”.

While the latter are the boring things that were built with unexciting bulletproof tools that keep churning and adding business value day after day, year after year: “using the platform”.