First time I've heard this, I love it. Definitely resonates both as the one who is there first, and then future ambitious folks would rather rebuild than understand and extend. Also, relatable when I come in somewhere and immediately start thinking about how I would re-build something instead of improving it. We sure have a lot of hubris in software, don't we?

If you're looking at a giraffe's laryngeal nerve[0], you see it making a circuit from the jaw, down the loooong neck, to the chest, back up the loooong neck, and to the jaw again. It's like this because it used to be an small, innocent "u" shape back before giraffes evolved long necks. As their necks elongated, there was never any effort to rewire the nerve, so it elongated too.

When encountering that situation, the correct urge is to rebuild against current circumstances.

0: https://forum.donanimhaber.com/store/c9/ef/2d/c9ef2d955e3f99...

I hope you regularly give talks. You would be an amazing speaker.

"What I'm hearing is, there's a vacuum in the market for giraffe re-cabling services."

Very good point, eloquently worded

Eh, in this case your "thinker" sounds kinda dumb to me.

we aren’t disagreeing.

thinking isn’t always smart. being a cog isn’t always dumb.

sometimes the smartest thing to do is understand how a system is built and accept that until you understand it, you should learn about it. as a cog.