You ship fast.
You close tickets.
You keep the sprint moving.
And then six months later, your code breaks. Or someone else touches it, and curses your name.
Here's what's really happening: You're optimising for velocity, not trust.
Fast code that's hard to understand, fragile under change, or missing tests doesn't earn you credibility. It earns a reputation for leaving landmines.
Leadership doesn't promote the ones who ship fast and disappear. They promote people whose work holds up.
The shift: Stop measuring success by speed. Start measuring it by sustainability.
Sustainable code means:
Someone else can read it without decoding hieroglyphics
It doesn't explode when requirements change
It's tested enough that you're not the only one who can touch it
Watch today's video where I break down:
How I went from "fast coder" to "trusted architect" by slowing down
The exact quality bar that separates juniors from seniors
Three practices that make your code trustworthy (without slowing you down)
Tomorrow: Mistake #3 - You're invisible because you don't speak business. I'll show you how to tie your work to outcomes that matter.
- Karell aka The Serious CTO