>> The phenomenon I'm talking about is ICs seeing something for the first time, and then deciding that must be the priority because it's so bad, and dropping e

>> The phenomenon I'm talking about is ICs seeing something for the first time, and then deciding that must be the priority because it's so bad, and dropping everything else to fix that thing even if it's weeks worth of work. They see what's in front of them as the thing that's most important. Sometimes that new person is wrong, buy often there is truth in their assessment. If they're right that they've walked onto a bunch of garbage then their desire to fix it immediately is IMHO the correct thing to do with the exception of making critical (meaning contractual) deadlines for a customer. The time to fix a disaster is when someone has that intrinsic motivation to do it.