in my opinion, this tendency to label anything less-than-ideal as 'garbage' is an outdated leftover of a time when assholish (and unrealistic) perfectionism was

in my opinion, this tendency to label anything less-than-ideal as 'garbage' is an outdated leftover of a time when assholish (and unrealistic) perfectionism was admired in software engineering, or at least looked up to as 'good engineering'. This binary outlook is what leads to people who don't understand the reasons behind why existing code is the way it is to criticize. Frankly, when someone does it (and I have done it, lots of times, to my chagrin now) its a pretty good marker of engineering immaturity. This is different than looking at something and identifying ways it could be better, btw. The latter is value-neutral and judgement-free.