Doing the Wrong Thing the Right Way

One failure mode that is very common for us is spending all your energy on technical excellence without making sure you're working toward the right goal.

You can be a true hotshot and still miss the mark. No matter how exceptional your skills are or how clean your code is, it won't matter if you apply them to building the wrong thing.

While technical excellence does help you change direction when you realize your mistake, I've seen far too many developers go far too long before learning they weren't even realizing a meaningful objective.

Make sure to continuously invest at least a little energy in finding out if what you're doing even matters.