Eight years ago, I was absolutely convinced of one thing:
I was ahead of the curve.
Not just good.
Not just competent.
Elite.
The kind of deve...
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I'm struck by the humbling quality of this story, the way your ego got in the way of producing something truly useful. It's like when I was learning to play an instrument, and I'd spend hours trying to recreate some fancy solo, only to realize I'd forgotten the simple melody that made the whole song beautiful in the first place. The conversation with "Smart Man" must have been a turning point, it's amazing how a single conversation can shift our perspective like that, isn't it?
Thank you for this — your analogy about focusing on the fancy solo instead of the core melody really captures the technical mistake I made, because I was over-engineering patterns instead of delivering something actually usable and maintainable. That conversation was definitely a turning point, and now I try to prioritize simplicity, clear architecture, and real user value over clever abstractions
Thanks for sharing this life lesson, Art! It feels like you’re becoming a bit of a boomer yourself now 😉
What really struck me was when you mentioned Ronald’s line: “If nobody uses it, you are the architect of an empty building.” And especially when you talked about the hit your ego took.
I think, at some point, most of us go through that phase — the oversized ego, the certainty that we know better, and the temporary deafness to anything that challenges our vision. What makes the difference is what comes next.
Your real strength wasn’t avoiding that phase — it was being able to listen, reflect, and turn the experience into growth. Not everyone develops that kind of self-awareness. That’s what transforms a tough lesson into long-term wisdom.
Thanks again for the honest reflection — it’s the kind of perspective that helps the rest of us grow a little faster.
Haha, maybe I am slowly earning that boomer badge 😄 — but honestly, you’re right, the real technical mistake wasn’t the architecture itself, it was optimizing and over-engineering before validating real user demand. That experience changed how I approach system design now: I focus first on usage signals, feedback loops, and measurable adoption metrics — because clean architecture means nothing if it solves the wrong problem, and I’m genuinely interested in refining that balance even more in future builds.
That shift in perspective really shows. Focusing on usage signals and feedback before polishing the architecture is such a powerful mindset — and honestly, not an easy one to internalize until you’ve lived through the opposite.
What I find interesting is that many of us are trained to think “build it right” means “build it perfectly,” when in reality it often means “build it relevant.” Clean architecture becomes meaningful only when it serves something alive and evolving.
It’s great to see how that experience reshaped the way you design systems. That kind of balance between technical excellence and real-world validation is probably one of the hardest skills to master — and one that keeps evolving with every new project.
Thank you for this — I really appreciate how clearly you captured that tension between “perfect” and “relevant,” because that’s exactly the technical trap many of us fall into early on. I’m still learning to balance clean architecture with real usage signals
It's great and really impressive.
Nice approach
Good
Everything are perfect!
Professional!
wonderful!!!!
Thanks😀
Very brilliant post, wonderful
Thanks
Thanks for saving my six years you are the smart man of my life , I wish i could see that smile of yours
Haha, that made my day — if I somehow saved you six years, that’s the biggest compliment I could ask for. 😄
And trust me, the real smile is seeing thoughtful devs like you leveling up and thinking deeply about the technical side of things.
Thanku bro, i am just pursuing diploma of IT, the proffessors didn''t care how much we get in our head they just want to finsh syllabus and they only taught us about hello world in c java and it's haunting me everyday how i would be able to get job it's really fucked up situation can you guide me it will be kind of you if you do so , thanks again don't mind
Respect for being honest about that — a lot of people are in the same situation but don’t talk about it. The good news is: jobs don’t care about what your professors covered, they care about what you can build, so if you focus on mastering fundamentals (C/Java basics, data structures, Git, one backend stack) and start building small real projects consistently, you’ll be way ahead of most diploma grads
This is very good article i want to learn from you.
Thanks for your reply.
Please feel free to contact me anytime.
wonderful, this is a powerful and humbling reminder that real success in development comes not from ego or complexity, but from consistently creating genuine value for real people.
Really appreciate this — it’s a powerful and grounding reminder that real success in development isn’t about ego or over-engineering, but about building solutions that actually solve real technical problems for real users.
This hit hard — the “architect of empty building” line perfectly captures the technical trap of overengineering without product validation, and I think many of us have hidden behind abstractions, microservices, and “future scalability” instead of solving one painful user problem well. I’m really interested in exploring how we can balance solid architecture with fast validation
This really hit — the “architect of empty buildings” line perfectly captures the technical trap of overengineering without real product validation, and I think many of us have hidden behind abstractions, microservices, and “future scalability” instead of just solving one painful user problem well.
good idea
Great
Wooonderful!!
ok.. this is very practical article and u are really talent dev for me. I am really proud of u as your client
Excellent. I recommend.
Thank you very much
very good
Thanks😀
You changed nothing
I have changed it all.
😎
Perfect!!!
Nice insight🙌
Good
This is a valuable life lesson. Accepting that outcomes, whether successes or failures, are part of the journey is a liberating feeling. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much — I really appreciate that perspective, and I agree that accepting both success and failure as part of the process helps us focus more on improving our systems and technical decisions rather than just chasing outcomes.
I totally agree with you!!!!!!!!!
Thanks🤣
Thanks for your story.
✌✌
Wow, that's really great career story.
I love all your articles🎏
I’d like to help you.