# Quality

By Randall Degges · May 30, 2014 · https://rdegges.com/2014/quality/

> I've always built lots of things fast. Now I want to be known for the quality of my work instead of the quantity, starting with a nightly check on my day.

![Warrior with Sword Sketch][]


Since I first started working as a *"professional developer"*, my primary focus
has been building a lot of different things -- *fast*.

Even when I was younger and spent all my free-time after school building projects,
I'd exclusively focus on building lots of little services and command line
programs without much regard for their longevity.

I tend to get bored of working on the same thing for more than a couple of months,
and really enjoy the thrill of starting projects, building them out until I'm
satisfied, then putting them into maintenance mode and only thinking about them
occasionally.

Unfortunately, while I've always put a lot of thought and consideration into the
quality of my projects, I've come to realize that there is *so much more I could
do* to not only improve the quality of these projects, but make them more
successful, interesting, and usable.

It is now apparent to me that my lack of discipline and interest in ruthlessly
focusing on the quality of my software (and life in general) has really been a
personal vice.

After meeting so many great programmers and other people over the past several
years, I've noticed something in common with all the people I admire: they
ruthlessly focus on the quality of their projects, above all else.

Regardless of whatever obstacles and hurdles they have to jump over to make things
happen, they find a way to do it.

It's not only incredibly impressive to me, but also very humbling.

Instead of being a person who's known for the *quantity* of his output, I'd
instead like to become a person known for the *quality* of his output.


## What I'm Aiming For

I realize that saying vague things like *"I intend to focus on quality over
quantity"* is not much use, so I've decided to make my journey a little more
actionable.

For the next month, I'm going to start out simple.  Every night before bed I'm
going to think about what I did during the day, and reflect on whether or not I
was satisfied with the quality of my work.

My hope is that by bringing a focus on quality into my daily routine and
consciously thinking about it each day, I'll be able to continuously remind
myself through the day that I *want* to be focusing on the quality of my work,
and push myself to be better in that regard.


[Warrior with Sword Sketch]: warrior-with-sword-sketch.jpg "Warrior with Sword Sketch"