"In the real world...", "Nobody cares about how it works as long it works...", etc. This is a company where the top level management 1) thinks it knows best about everything, 2) micromanages everything, and 3) trusts absolutely no one to do their jobs. The CEO has a software degree but never really worked as a programmer professionally and is as obsessed with exclusively shipping features as any MBA, and it flows down from there.

When you hire subject-matter experts to do professional work and then refuse to believe that they might know more than you about how to do that work, you're going to have deep dysfunction.

"We don't need the gold plated version, we just this to work and we need to ship it YESTERDAY"

If you try to explain they just say things like "don't write bad code so you won't need tests and refactoring"

My new rule of thumb is: don't work for companies without a technical co-founder.

I agree having technical leadership makes a huge difference. Still, most developers don't realize that if they push back hard enough, a lot of those loud "done yesterday" requirements dissolve. Non technical people always ask for more than they expect they'll get.

True, but at some point, it's just exhausting. Every conversation is an exercise in pushing back.

At my current company it’s basically the roadmap.