> Keep in mind too that "requirements at hand" can include a significant degree of path dependency, and that it can be a mistake to read too much reasoning into

> Keep in mind too that "requirements at hand" can include a significant degree of path dependency, and that it can be a mistake to read too much reasoning into something too. This is why I'd say there's some value in sticking to spec even if it doesn't 100% meet your needs or do things the way you think they ought to be done. Tacking away is as likely to screw you in the long run as it is to benefit you. The benefits would be much more obvious, of course, in a world that's almost an unimaginable utopia from our perspective: one without intellectual property, in which major advances like Apple's ARM silicon were widely shared and put to the good of humankind in general, rather than held privately for the profit of a single corporation.