Early in my career, I was obsessed with speed. I wanted to write code faster, ship faster, and grow faster. It felt like a developer’s value was measured by task counts and how quickly you replied in chats.
Over time, I realized that speed is almost always bought at the expense of something else. Readability. Reliability. Context. Writing fast code is easy when systems are small and consequences are low.
As projects grow more complex, speed stops being an advantage. What starts to matter is the ability not to break things, not to overengineer, and not to create problems that will need to be “heroically” fixed later.
These days, I move slower, and I’m fine with it. I think more before I write, delete more code, and make fewer “clever” decisions. If the code looks boring, it’s usually a good sign.
The industry loves speed and loud success stories. Production loves stability and silence. And if it feels like you’ve slowed down, maybe you haven’t fallen behind — maybe you’ve stopped rushing and started building things that actually last.
– Serguey Asael Shinder
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