I worked with an engineer once who spent most of their time refactoring and cleaning up. They explained over beers how they wanted to spend more time being net-

I worked with an engineer once who spent most of their time refactoring and cleaning up. They explained over beers how they wanted to spend more time being net-negative. After they left, sure enough, removed more code than ever added and was the best member of the team. That stuck with me and I also now strive, where it makes sense, to remove before create.