What I would change now

Most of the lessons are less dramatic than the projects that taught them.

I would ask narrower questions sooner. I would spend more time beside the person doing the work and less time polishing the explanation of the work.

I would build fewer dashboards. I would treat every extra field, notification, and clever abstraction as something that has to earn its place.

Mostly, I would remember that a system can be technically correct and still make somebody’s day worse. That is not a small bug.