I’ve literally never seen the latter: I think companies that do that just disappear. The former though is a great driver: Let your debt pile up sky high because it doesn’t matter as long as it lets you make more money in short term vs dealing with it.
you may say it’s short term thinking, but if you’re optimising for investment, that’s the right thinking. Make money now, you can always move it elsewhere that makes better use of it.
It’s not what I personally agree with, but just my observations so far
With regard to "excessive concern with prettifying minutia", I'm thinking of e.g. code reviews where people spend significant attention going back and forth on minor stylistic issues.
Another example: I remember a coworker reviewing code I wrote many years ago. I came up with a solution that was reasonably simple and workable, but wasn't the "right" way to do it. My coworker complained, I pointed out various reasons the "right" way wasn't practical, and they said something like "yeah but it has to be right" (without suggesting any concrete plan). Very frustrating -- I don't think it was particularly important code.
Working on my own, I already have a sense of how much effort I want to spend on code quality. When you add code review on top of that, it can feel a little excessive, depending on the importance of the application.
I actually have a lot more memories of code review frustration than code review gratitude. At my next job I would like to experiment more with code "previews" or design reviews -- that seems more efficient than rewriting code which already works.
I sometimes catch myself discussing “correctness” in PRs because it’s important to know what tradeoffs you’re making, and whether a neater/simpler/better solution exists. So yea, sometimes my suggestions can be misinterpreted as blockers.
I have since learned that giving actionable feedback is the trick to smooth review process, as well as trusting the authors (in a way). Their implementation may not be the way I would have done it, but I have to ask myself “will it still work?” as a basis for pass.
But I digress, I can see what you mean in your original reply, and agree, that weird “arranging deck chairs on a sinking ship” does indeed happen
you may say it’s short term thinking, but if you’re optimising for investment, that’s the right thinking. Make money now, you can always move it elsewhere that makes better use of it.
It’s not what I personally agree with, but just my observations so far