I had my bike stolen this week from outside my place of work. As annoying as this was, it’s kind of my own fault (in a way) as I skimped when buying the bike lock whereas if I’d invested a little more, I’d still be enjoyed a two-wheeled commute as opposed to my current two-legged affair.
I thought I was saving money at the time but having no insurance (it wasn’t actually worth insuring to be fair), I’ve now lost the £40 I could have got for it on Gumtree, which I had actually planned to do next week as I’m moving (typical!).
I was also asked to look at a website this week, as the owner was having alot of issues with it. I had previously quoted this person for a new website but had heard nothing back from them.
As it turns out, they had opted to go with someone else who had agreed to build their site for a considerably cheaper sum. Now, six months down the line, major cracks are starting to appear and I had to gently tell them they’ve paid for a steaming turd.
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” Red Adair
There is a well known saying, “You get what you pay for“, yet many people still seem to believe this does not apply to web design & development. If it looks ok, and it seems to work, job done!
However, I would say to any serious business owner who is offered a website for a seemingly “bargain” price, if it looks to be good to be true, it probably is.
Similarly, I’ve found that when stuck in the throng of a project, with impatient stakeholders and impending deadlines, it’s all too easy to slip in a couple of quick hacks to achieve the desired effect.
While this is a short-term win, it is ultimately adding to a mountain of technical debt that will come tumbling down around you somewhere down the line. This will inevitably lead to bigger bugs, increased workloads and more pressingly deadlines.
Quite simply, if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. I learnt this the hard way, and now so have my feet.
Thoughts From My Head 
