Technically speaking, for any given situation there's no way you can be wrong.
But this post describes a distinct and, by my experience, dominant industry phenomenon. And the stakes are as high is OP says (dead products).
Industry engineers in the large are massively divorced from product outcome. This should be no surprise, as it is a seller's market:
Delivering product simply and directly can be, depending on perspective, somewhat of a mundane and Sisyphean activity.
Engineering "stuff" is far more intellectually engaging, and there's no market pressure (for engineers) against over-engineering. If my company fails to deliver a product outcome, whether a viable company or startup, in this market there is no recourse at all on my salary let alone my hireability.
I say "depending on perspective" because if you can find a way to be more intellectually and emotionally stimulated by shipping stable product over time, then ime you _can_ unite your joie de vivre with market outcomes.
But that does not at all describe most engineers in industry who generally at best shed off some market value while spinning unnecessary webs of toy abstractions (ie liabilities).
Technically speaking, for any given situation there's no way you can be wrong.
But this post describes a distinct and, by my experience, dominant industry phenomenon. And the stakes are as high is OP says (dead products).
Industry engineers in the large are massively divorced from product outcome. This should be no surprise, as it is a seller's market:
Delivering product simply and directly can be, depending on perspective, somewhat of a mundane and Sisyphean activity.
Engineering "stuff" is far more intellectually engaging, and there's no market pressure (for engineers) against over-engineering. If my company fails to deliver a product outcome, whether a viable company or startup, in this market there is no recourse at all on my salary let alone my hireability.
I say "depending on perspective" because if you can find a way to be more intellectually and emotionally stimulated by shipping stable product over time, then ime you _can_ unite your joie de vivre with market outcomes.
But that does not at all describe most engineers in industry who generally at best shed off some market value while spinning unnecessary webs of toy abstractions (ie liabilities).