Abstraction is necessary, but all is in context. If you take a week to come up with a better abstraction, but the product is delayed with no real benefit other

Abstraction is necessary, but all is in context. If you take a week to come up with a better abstraction, but the product is delayed with no real benefit other than the purity of your abstraction, then the process has failed. I like this quote by Teddy Roosevelt: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." The antidote to "paralysis by too much analysis". I've worked in some high pressure jobs, and I don't mean coding (like underwater emergency repairs), and even if you know what you are about to do is not the optimal solution, but it gets the job done in a decent way, there's no choice. You do it that way. And you get better at predicting how much you can really afford to abstract away on future jobs. Now in coding, if you truly enjoy the process, and the academics of it, you should consider going into academia. Tools are later produced from the fruits of that research. In the business world, you need to be able to deliver a product that works, is solid and does the job. I sympathize, because I spend all of my free time studying. I enjoy getting in deeper and deeper to mathematics and coding, mainly math. I started in the applied world, and ventured off into the abstract world. I love it. I wouldn't want a job with it though, since I would not be able to stop myself from following the trail, blind to the objectives of the job.