upvote
The Anna Karenina principle looms large in software engineer projects. Basically there are an infinite failure modes that can occur due to small actions or wrong thinking by one or more influential people, but there is only one way to make large projects successful. Basically the team has to have sufficient expertise to cover the surface area, and those individuals need enough trust from leadership to navigate the million known and unknown pitfalls that await.
reply
You don't ever make the prototype public.

Also, there's a certain point where you can't avoid management sabotaging things.

reply
Sometimes you don't know what needs to be built until you build it. These end-to-end prototypes are how to enhance your understanding and develop deeper intuition about possibilities, where risks lie, etc.
reply