The best way I’ve ever heard this explained is to imagine a software business as a machine. Early on, it’s easy to trust - the machine is small, there aren’t ma

The best way I’ve ever heard this explained is to imagine a software business as a machine. Early on, it’s easy to trust - the machine is small, there aren’t many working parts and dependencies are all manageable. Making things even easier, the founders generally have control over hiring and they’re often still at the hiring friends/colleagues stage of their evolution. Then, the machine gets bigger and the dependency graph gets more complicated. Suddenly, if you change one small part of your module, you run a very real chance of ruining something someone in a faraway department relies upon. So, the machine evolves to have things like coding standards and more formalized review processes. Unfortunately, the machine is composed of humans and humans aren’t as simple as just pulling it all apart, greasing it up and putting it back into service. So every single time you add a review step, there’s a chance it genuinely adds to quality (or removes risk). But, there’s also a chance that that change was about ego and organizational power. Then, in five to ten years, they hire MBAs to come in and lay people off. Edit - Good heavens, this sounds bleak.