But do you really want to be the developer who has to debug 'creative' code after the original dev has left? It may not be as much fun, but I don't think that a

But do you really want to be the developer who has to debug 'creative' code after the original dev has left? It may not be as much fun, but I don't think that assembly-line development is entirely a bad thing. Even something minor like style conventions: far better to fit into the assembly line of your team's style guide than produce a project where every file is written in a slightly different way. Is this particular variable supposed to be const b/c it is all caps, or not? The last class followed that standard, but who knows? Small example, but can be applied to larger things as well. Last month I had to 'maintain' an application for a small business that had seen too much creativity from contractors over the years, and it seemed like every single one chose a different language. Or we can just abandon practice of referring to development as engineering, and treat every project like artisinal craft work.