Here's mine: to a first approximation, code quality is unimportant. Rapid iteration is what matters. I've seen lots of failed projects with smart, super-consci

Here's mine: to a first approximation, code quality is unimportant. Rapid iteration is what matters. I've seen lots of failed projects with smart, super-conscientious developers, who wouldn't write a method without a test. And others with programmers that frequently copied code, used globals for side effects, basically did everything they tell you not to do, but they produced programs that people loved using. The difference was rapid iteration with real customers. This flushed out important bugs, even with code that was written in a way that was prone to be buggy. But more importantly, the developers quickly understood the product in a more global sense -- what was relevant to users and what wasn't. I suspect rapid iteration can turn even mediocre developers into stars. It's important to recognize that good practices are about tradeoffs. The truly good developer is not the one that never copies code; it's the one that knows when it is the more fruitful course of action. So in a way, you need to be brilliant to get away with being sloppy.