202304031244 There is never time to fix things later

There is a saying in software development:

There is never time to do the job right, but there is always time to fix it later.¹

We all know that this is the attitude of many managers and developers, but we can plainly see that it's an obvious contradiction. If there's never time to work on something now, then there can't be any other time at any future "now".

Push back. Take your time. Get things done right or else you'll pay for it many times over in the long run.

This does contrast somewhat with the general philosophy that 202208151317 Incremental change is always better, but it isn't a contradiction. Each incremental change should be done slowly and thoroughly. Each piece of development should have all the steps that go into making something excellent.