I think about what is the number 1 priority for a piece of code, am I gonna use it once and forget it? Will I use it all the time?

I've gone in the opposite direction in my career.

Overbuilding the initial version of something for a bunch of anticipated (rather than actual use/failure scenarios) is something I now work very hard to avoid.

The key IMHO is really being nimble enough to extract and/or refactor and/or refine as soon as it is needed. Not before, not after.

"Overly robust" code is actually a huge problem sometimes. All that unused code is in there, giving the appearance of being robust, but is not actually battle-tested....

" am I gonna use it once and forget it? " Always comes back to bite me in the a$$. Also taking over projects that were built this way always a pain. Now and days I just refuse to do the work if they pushing to cut corners.All in all I say my quality of life and the sense of being proud of work has increased.

I do agree with you. Now that I think of it I rarely write "use it once and forget it", because as you said it will come back to bite.

"am I gonna use it once and forget it?"

Isn't the saying, YAGNI (You're not gonna need it)?

YAGNI is meant for a "this could maybe be useful" scope-creep feature, that seems simple to add but doesn't have a reason to exist.

(Aside, flip the contraction to get the acronym - "you aren't gonna need it")