(note: all “Stories from the Field” are true, thinly anonymized to protect the -usually- guilty)
Teammate: (goes to a big and important customer)
Customer: I want a software like this and that
Customer: And I want it yesterday
Project Manager: They want it yesterday
Teammate: But I need a bit more time in order to implement some UI checks, so that users don’t make mistakes
Customer: Our users don’t make mistakes, they are permanent employees for so many years, they know their job
Teammate: Hmmmokey
Teammate: (implements software in just a few days)
Teammate: (delivers)
Customer: (installs)
Users: (use the software)
Users: (literally fuck up everything that is possible and some things that are not)
Customer: WHY ARE THE DATA WRONG
Teammate: …but you said…
Customer: you’re not good I want another one
Project Manager: Jim you’re assigned to this
Jim: I will rewrite it from zero and I will implement these UI checks plus many many more
Customer: I WANT IT YESTERDAY
Project Manager: THEY WANT IT YESTERDAY
Jim: (doesn’t give a shit)
Jim: (writes code anywhere, anytime, day, night, while eating, while getting the baby to sleep, while helping his wife with breastfeeding etc etc)
Jim: (delivers)
Customer: Why is this 40MB this is bigger than the previous one I don’t like this
Jim: (loses his shit and starts screaming)
Customer: Jeez why are you so nervous you need to calm down
Customer: (installs)
Users: (use the software)
Users: OH HEY THIS WORKS
Users: IT HAS HELPFUL COLOURS TOO
Users: AND IT HAS EXPLANATIONS FOR EACH FIELD
Users: THIS IS GREAT
Customer: great job Jim, see I told you the first guy was not good
Jim: (silently curses in languages he doesn’t even speak)
Note: to be fair, the “40MB” complaint wasn’t as irrational as it sounds. The software had to be copied to many client computers, some of them in remote parts of the country with slow lines; this was still the days of ISDN. Still, the refactoring was worth it. The added volume was caused by a reporting library (Crystal Reports for .Net) which solved many problems by itself. I now understand the frustration of the customer’s IT as someone had to stay up all night copying. But the pressure from management was so much that at this point the poor guy just said the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong person. Elias if you ever read this, please accept my apologies 😊
Dot Jim 
That is the mentality and the difference of a senior!
It is 😊 It’s also terrifying because you’re essentially betting with your career. If this goes wrong everyone will go “see, we told him X and he did something else”. You need to be sure, really really sure and confident to be able to pull that off.
It also helped that I had seen this fail, already, and the other guy (you might even remember him, Andreas) had taken the blame, undeservingly.
Fortunately in this instance, it worked -so much so, that the project manager once told me “I got tired of getting congratulatory emails for this project” 😄
This made my day, thanks thanks, “silently curses in languages he doesn’t even speak” ……. ” Este Coño de Madre $#!@$#%^$&^”