Avoiding Stupidity

I have to agree. When IT systems get overly complicated or bogged down, it's usually traceable to a few bad design decisions, or a silly obsession of a given developer or manager.

If you probe their decision making, often you'll hear something like, "but I thought that Foo was the future at the time".

Another common one is, "I did that to avoid X from happening. Once X happened in another application or shop and created a mess."

Often it turns out that X is either rare, or there were simpler ways to avoid X or reduce the spillage if X does happen. Don't overcompensate.

It's good to run ideas by other people and give them the freedom/comfort to comment without consequences. Two heads are usually better than one. We all have quirks and blind-spots in our thinking.