Correctly judging this tradeoff is what makes the difference between a good architect and a great architect. There are definitely cases where I have put in a b

Correctly judging this tradeoff is what makes the difference between a good architect and a great architect. There are definitely cases where I have put in a bit of effort (a week or so's worth of programming) to make things flexible because due to the requirements I knew they would be necessary in the 9-12 month timeframe (I've also been wrong about architectural decisions). Then when the time came around, it was painless to make the transition. I suppose if you were cynical, you could claim that if it's painless no one sees how important you are. And then you wind up leaving the company, because they think everything is easy and don't provide you with the autonomy to achieve what you need to make their system work. And then they discover that it's actually hard.