I built the perfect, elegant solution… for a problem that didn’t exist. Sometimes, I forget not everything needs a microservice and a dashboard. Anyone else guilty of accidentally overengineering the simple stuff?
1
I’m currently surviving day 45 of a 60-day PIP, and the psychological warfare of this process is worse than the actual threat of being fired. I’ve hit every single arbitrary metric they set for me so far, but my manager still treats me like a stranger and documents every casual Slack message I send. It’s completely obvious that the plan isn't meant to rehabilitate me, it’s just a legal shield for HR to clear the desk. If you actually managed to beat a PIP, did you stay at the company or just use the time to find a clean exit?
Got put on a PIP after years of decent reviews. Did nothing on the PIP (at all.). Got several angry phone calls to my personal cell from manager and HR. Ignored them and stopped coming in to work. Within a week had *several* solid offers for better jobs. Took a couple months off and now have a great new job that pays 2x and is a double promo. So PIP possibly should stand for "time to get a more interesting, higher paid job with tons of new RSUs".
This is literally me, all the time. Last week I realized that I built an entire app just to organize my perfume collection, before I realized that... spreadsheets exist. I mean, sometimes the fun is just in nerding out and creating stuff that doesn't even really matter that much. But then sometimes it's also just a procrastination tool and a waste of time 😆
I once built a whole app just to plan my dream holidays. Still haven’t gone on any. But hey, it works beautifully.
Haha, been there! A friend once spent two weeks building an automated system for something she only needed to do twice. It’s all love, though; it just means you’re creative and passionate about solving things well. Sometimes the learning and joy of building are worth it, even if the use case is tiny. Next time, maybe sketch the “why” first, not just the “how.”
Sometimes the project isn’t about efficiency—it’s about curiosity and getting better at the craft. Still, a quick gut check on “how often will I use this?” saves a lot of time.
Overengineering happens when enthusiasm runs ahead of actual needs. It’s easy to get lost in building flashy tools that don’t solve real problems. The key is grounding solutions in clear pain points and user feedback, then iterating only as complexity proves necessary. Elegance is valuable, but simplicity wins every time.
The magic is in finding that point where the solution is just enough.
It's this thing that we do, especially guys, when we're taught that if there's a problem you gotta solve it right away. Like why even tell me about a challenge or difficulty if you don't want me to solve it? So we jump to solutioning and "how" and spend weeks building it instead of asking "why" 😅
This is so real. That “fix-it” instinct kicks in before the full picture forms.We need more space in tech to pause before jumping to code.
This is why we have BAs! Love the enthusiasm; personally I think it's a trademark of a great developer. Works beautifully when put together with a great team of other devs, some QAs, and good BAs.
Exactly—BAs help us ask the right questions before we hit build. That mix of developers, QAs, and BAs really is the dream team
Definitely. But I'm not a professional dev, so anything I do is at least a learning experience. Or that's what I'm telling myself.
Honestly, that’s the best way to look at it. If you’re learning, it’s never wasted. Every little “overbuild” adds to your future toolkit