100% agree. Though a lot of the churn here could be reduced with the right education and mentorship. There is a mathematics to good architectures -- a mathematics that can be taught. But currently the initiative of us are left to find the way ourselves. We need to find a way to formulate and teach this mathematics to the next generation/s so they can get there faster.
Practice. As well as trying to notice when things work or don't (I have colleagues that see "firefighting" as a normal part of a running system. If something keeps needing attention, it is probably badly written or architected).
Linus said something along the lines of bad programmers worrying about the code, and good ones worrying about the data structures. I think there is truth in this, even though I develop Django database applications most of the time. If I find myself doing too much work at the application level, taking a step back I can usually see a better approach when I rearrange the database.
Good point. How many "rockstar" developers show up at Company X, build the initial versions of a product or architecture, then move on to the next company never to understand the longer term consequences of their choices?
