> Even in a bad code base you can start making things better, apply modern techniques and learn new things

All th bad codebase I've seen were a result of fossils who are still with the company gatekeeping anyone from fixing their code.

A few years ago, I had one architect stubbornly refuse to use source control, rejected all PRs that didn't use his homegrown buggy C++ libs for strings, refused to let anyone do the http server bits unless they used his C++ server and so on.

If there isn't a gatekeeper, you wouldn't have the bad codebase in the first place.

I've got to disagree. not every contributor is making the code base better. I'm in a situation where we are such a small team that there really is no gatekeeper, and we only require one approve per pr...and I've come back from vacation to some monstrosities that I have to look at with no time to fix. After a pairing session with a a fellow developer, where I took the extra effort to refactor something along the way, probably an addition 15 minutes of effort...she quipped- no wonder it takes you so long to finish your stories sometimes. I mean, that's not why- I'm ADHD, so my lack of productivity sometimes is invariably due to a day where I forgot my meds or didn't get a full nights rest.

Making things better and applying modern techniques don’t map to a feature story. In the environments being discussed you’ll have to wait for a cadre of architects and program managers to convince the C levels to commit to a multi year, millions of dollar effort to have any hope of improving a code base.

You don't have to rewrite everything, to start fixing things.

Must be nice to live in your world of being treated as a professional.

'So your story ran over again help me understand where we can improve your work flow'.

> "just because you have to work with some legacy PHP project, it doesn't mean that you would suck at creating modern applications in JS"

I disagree; working on a legacy PHP project isn't just opportunity cost (failing to sharpen your knife), it's actively harmful (leaving the knife in salt water, accelerating the rust).