Hard Code

"The trouble is that qaulity and value are wrapped in perception. Even if we built a product that precisely matched the spec with zero bugs, customers and reviewers might still hate it. If it doesn't work the way they think it should, it's junk. If it doesn't solve the problem the way they expect, it's trash.

 At the same time, I-Puke can produce a buggy piece of glorified plastic that crashes twice a day, and it will get showered with praise and command premium pricing just because it reminds people of their pet rocks. Life isn't fair. The markey isn't fair. And customers are fickle." [1]

Never forget that the most "flawless" code in the world can still fail to meet customer expectations. At the end of the day, your goal is to meet customer expectations, not to write "flawless" code. As important as clean code may be, spagetti code that meets customer expectations is far better than beautiful code that fails to do so.

 [1] Hard Code by I.M. Right (Eric Brechner)