I wish I had more than one upvote to give you for this post.
> I’ve asked myself this question recently.
I suspect both are true. There are real complexities that have grown around you and working in the same way on the same stuff for so long has caused you to habituate to a few inefficiencies. I suggest shaking up your world view a little and seeing what falls out. There are probably a few big gains you could make.
I would approach it—at least initially—as a mental exercise. What are your assumptions about the role, the code, the product? How could you (in)validate those. What would it look like to take each thing you think you know and invert them one at a time? What if things that you think are bad are actually good? What if things you think are fast could be twice as fast? Etc.
> I’ve asked myself this question recently.
I suspect both are true. There are real complexities that have grown around you and working in the same way on the same stuff for so long has caused you to habituate to a few inefficiencies. I suggest shaking up your world view a little and seeing what falls out. There are probably a few big gains you could make.
Good luck!