I agree in principle, but not in practice. Yeah, in an ideal world, everyone would set aside their own personal desires and wants to focus on the business's go

I agree in principle, but not in practice. Yeah, in an ideal world, everyone would set aside their own personal desires and wants to focus on the business's goals. And yes, you have to choose the customers' goals if the two should ever conflict. But in practice, human beings are needy animals who aren't always practical. I find that programmers (including myself) can be more productive if you indulge that side a little bit. In short, I think that you can have your cake and eat it too: code that programmers appreciate working on and also serves the customers' needs.