The Benchmarks of a Ghost Ship: On Knowing When to Walk Away

In the world of software engineering, we are raised on a diet of pure meritocracy. We believe that if our algorithms are faster, our latency lower, and our architecture more elegant, we win. We treat the codebase like a sanctuary where logic is the only law. But I’ve spent my career building cathedrals in sinking cities, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the most brilliant code in…