Stop bragging about how much you shipped!

I understand that code does not generate revenue unless people are using it. I appreciate getting product out the door. I also love clean code a solid architecture that reduces maintenance costs and allows developers to stay productive for years to come. I cannot abide the “ship or die” mentality when people ship hacky, unusable software then play the “shipping is everything” card.

Not all shipping is a success. China shipped melamine-laced milk that made a ton of people sick. Madoff shipped a lot of information that led to financial ruin. Komen shipped their plan to cut funding to Planned Parenthood and faced a great backlash. NASA shipped code with metric-imperial unit mismatch and crashed a $300,000,000 rover. Microsoft shipped Clippy and people cringed. A little oversight before shipping can save lives and prevent PR nightmares.

Let’s stop glorifying shipping and start glorifying quality, happiness (for clients and employees), and success.