in reply to The Boy Scout Rule
Hello eyepopslikeamosquito,
I enjoyed your post and thanks for the research and references.
I would add as a reference the book "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries. Not because it's Perl related ( it isn't ), but because it discusses in detail the conflict between "business" and "programming" value(s) to a company. Your discussion about 'bookings.com' brought this book to mind.
As a programmer, I have always wanted to get a "perfect" finished product before announcing/shipping it. The book was written by a programmer and that was how he was taught. But he discovered that the best way was to build a MVP, or Minimum Viable Product and then test the waters, and then retest again and again. He also found that because of how he was trained, he was a major stumbling block for building a successful business.
This book changed how I look at programming and business. I don't try to perfect something that nobody wants, and I suspect ( IMHO ) that the successful software ( or depend on software ) companies prefer a MVP to a programmer's perfect product. (YMMV)
Regards...Ed
"Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin