The best codebases have been my own, because I can monopolize the style and design to my own exacting vision of how things should be. The best work codebases a

The best codebases have been my own, because I can monopolize the style and design to my own exacting vision of how things should be. The best work codebases are ones where I may disagree with a lot of the style, but the lack of enforcement at the level of classes and functions gives us creative freedom, builds mutual respect, and enables ego-less, pragmatic, tradeoff-driven discussions about things which are actually important. If these discussions end with a majority but not universal agreement, then its fine, the minority is not offended, and we happily continue with our work. That might also be because we're all pragmatists and somewhat cynical of shiny things, or the latest fad.