Speed. Sometimes I wonder if people mean speed as in velocity, or if they mean the drug, seeing as they seem to obsess so much about it.

> Engineering is about seeing a problem, understanding it and using the technology you’re good at to solve it as quickly as possible.

Everywhere you turn to there is someone thinking that speed is the most important thing ever. Everything must be done quickly. The best way to do something is quickly. If something takes longer, it's clearly worse.

Even in an article about "the problems with Agile", people still fall into the trap of speed.

Engineering is clearly not about solving problems "as quickly as possible". It's about solving them in the best way possible, where you first define "good" as a balance between all the advantages and all the disadvantages of each possible solution. Speed is but one of the factors you evaluate.