"Getting the job done" is a short-term goal that often comes at the expense of long-term well-being. For example, the endless parade of backward compatibility l

"Getting the job done" is a short-term goal that often comes at the expense of long-term well-being. For example, the endless parade of backward compatibility layers on top of backward compatibility layers. Each got the job done at the time. And each makes it just a little bit harder for future programmers to get their jobs done. I think a sense of beauty can let us know that something is amiss with the bigger picture. It can provoke us into stepping back and ask: what is actually necessary? Which jobs really need doing, and at what cost? Certainly, short-termism is not the only failure mode when writing software. Abstraction for abstraction's sake is another.