JEDI. Just Effing Do it.

For this second mental model, I'm talking about a topic that connects with the Broken Window principle.

When you're buried under a mountain of tech debt, it's easy to feel powerless - especially when there's constant pressure to deliver features faster and faster. The usual reactions are:

• Self-deception: "I quick-fixed the problem, no time for long-term actions."
• Shifting responsibility: "I'd like to refactor but product says we don't have time."
• Denial: "Great! We negotiated 10% of our capacity to fix bugs. Sure, we won't be able to fix everything, but hey, at least it's something."
• Resignation: "I know we'll never fix this. I've given up."

The truth is, developers have much more power than they think or than they're willing to admit. That power comes from expertise. We are the only ones who truly understand what's going on under the hood, and we're the only ones who can decide how to fix it.

And honestly, the solutions aren't that complicated:

• There's no such thing as a quick fix. If you want to solve a bug, you have to address its root cause - even if it takes two days. If someone asks why it takes so long, explain it.
• Never present an option that sacrifices quality. When I propose alternatives, every single one includes the necessary refactoring. If I'm pressured to cut corners, I push back: "Are you asking me to deliberately do my job poorly?" (credit to Rémy Luciani for this one).
• Don't ask for permission to keep your codebase healthy. Just do it. Period. "Power isn't given, it's taken." If someone asks what you're working on, explain it.

But for this to work, you need to internalize one simple truth: the only guarantors of technical quality are the devs. The only people responsible for the code are the devs. Your code sucks? It's your responsibility for letting those pull requests through. Your problem to fix.

The customer doesn't care about bugs, why they exist, or how to fix them. They just want the product to work.

And problems are not going to magically fix themselves. Staring at your Sentry dashboard won't, through sheer force of will, resolve the hundreds of issues piling up there.

The only way to solve problems... is to solve the problems.

Just Effing Do It.

There are many ways to convince people of this and motivate them to act. Sometimes it's repeating "it's just our damn job" often and loud enough. Personally, I prefer to lead by example. Once my teammates see it's possible, that someone genuinely cares about quality, and that things actually improve, they start doing the same.

Hopefully this post will spark the same motivation for others.

So be a JEDI and Just Effing Do It.