If building something great isn’t painful, you’re probably not building the best you can. Arguments, mis-steps, fights, back-tracking, re-discovering, frustration, throwing it away, trying again - these are all painful requirements for build a great product.
From Christopher Alexander foreword to Richard Gabriel's "Patterns Of Software":
In my life as an architect, I find that the single thing which inhibits young professionals, new students most severely, is their acceptance of standards that are too low. If I ask a student whether her design is as good as Chartres, she... See more