[superhuzza]

Refusing to accept a culture of optics is tantamount to not understanding optics though. The reality is that if you work on any kind of product, optics do matter - the perception of something working is often just as important as it actually working.

[Hasu]

It can't possibly be "just as important" - in some cases, I will accept "almost as important", but any situation where the optics are "it works" and the reality is "it doesn't work" is eventually going to come crashing down on someone's head.

If it doesn't need to work, then it doesn't matter and the optics also don't matter. Of course, it might be more important for your promotion that the optics are correct, no matter what the ground reality is, and the crash could come down on someone else's head instead of yours, but in this scenario someone who is against a culture of optics rather has a point.

[tharkun__]

Definitely just as important.

If you shipped and nobody important enough knows, then you haven't shipped in the eyes of the most important people.

I'm the first person to agree with you that it sucks that optics are important. But they are. You can definitely ship shit with great optics and get a promotion and be far away before that shit hits the fan.

But if you ship the greatest thing since sliced bread and nobody notices, then you might as well not have shipped at all.