👋 Hi there.
Not long ago, I was in a planning meeting where we were evaluating a new internal tool.
Everyone agreed it sounded helpful. It could save some developer time. Maybe improve our CI pipeline.
But I had this sinking feeling: we were solving a problem that hadn’t really happened yet.
And I remembered something a senior architect once told me:
“Most of the systems I regret aren’t the ones I built wrong, they’re the ones I built too soon.”
That stuck with me.
💡 The Real Mindset Shift: Less Is Often More
As developers, our value is often measured by output — tickets closed, features shipped, code written.
But as you move into architectural thinking, the value shifts.
It’s no longer about how much you build, but about what you choose not to build.
Here’s what this shift looks like in practice:
Developer Thinking | Architect Thinking |
|---|---|
"How can we implement this?" | "Should we even build this?" |
"What framework fits?" | "Does this need to exist at all?" |
"Let’s solve the edge cases now." | "Let’s wait until the edge case becomes real." |
"We can always refactor later." | "Let’s not take on unnecessary complexity yet." |
The truth is, every system you add has a cost. Not just in engineering effort, but in attention, maintenance, and organizational drag.
The best architects I’ve worked with had a kind of quiet discipline.
They didn’t default to “no” but they paused. They questioned.
And they helped the team make space for what really mattered.
💭 Why We Default to “Yes”
Let’s be honest: saying yes feels productive.
It makes you look like a team player. It feels like progress.
And as developers, we’re trained to say yes:
Yes to features
Yes to requests from product
Yes to shiny tools or frameworks that might be just what we need
Yes to writing code, because code is our comfort zone
But every “yes” you say is a silent commitment to long-term ownership.
Architecture isn’t just about guiding how things are built.
It’s about protecting the system from complexity that doesn’t need to exist yet.
The biggest messes I’ve seen weren’t caused by bad code.
They were caused by good people saying yes too early, too often, without pause.
🛠 Tool of the Week: The Build Cost Canvas
Next time you’re considering a new feature, system, or internal tool, try this:
Take 15 minutes to answer these four questions as a team:
Who will maintain this 6–12 months from now?
(Be honest — do they even know it’s coming?)What breaks if it fails?
(Is it critical or just annoying?)How will this evolve as the system scales or changes?
(Does it still make sense in a year? Does it trap you?)What happens if we don’t build it at all?
(Will users notice? Can we delay until the need is clearer?)
Put your answers in a quick doc or Slack thread.
You’re not blocking the project, you’re simply surfacing the cost of yes.
This simple reflection has saved me (and teams I’ve worked with) countless hours and more than a few regretful tech debt tickets.
✅ This Week’s Challenge
Take one thing your team is planning to build this quarter, a new feature, a service, or even just a utility script.
Ask yourself:
“What if we didn’t build this? What would actually happen?”
Now share that reflection with a teammate.
Not to block it, but to challenge it. Clarify it. Make the decision intentional.
And if you realize the answer is “we’re not sure”… maybe you don’t need to build it. At least, not yet.
Have you ever not built something and later realized it was the right call?
Or shipped something too soon and paid the price?
Send me an email. I’d love to hear what lessons you’ve learned from the features you didn’t build, or wish you hadn’t.
🚀 Want to Go Deeper, Faster?
If you’re serious about advancing into an architecture role, I've created a free 5-day email course just for you.
It’s called “From Developer to Architect” and walks you through key mindset shifts, system design concepts, and decision-making tools, one lesson at a time.
Each day takes 5–10 minutes. No buzzwords. Just practical insights and short challenges you can apply immediately.
Thanks for reading. See you next week.
Take care,
Bogdan Colța
Tech Architect Insights