>Nobody reading this thread is doing that, and the few that are know who they are.

That's the false dichotomy which earned me my stripes.

I used to think I am the former guy, then I realised I am the latter guy. The only thing that changed is that some time passed.

The hind-sight of my mistaken identity is that the systems I have been working on for 15 years became less, not more maintainable as a result of tolerating technical debt.

They also became Google-scale (which is what we were hoping for, but didn't believe at first).

I am the furthest thing from a purist. I am a filthy rich pragmatist who regrets having low-quality standards.