Comment by kryogen1c
> but somewhat orthogonal to "what is the quickest way to solve the task currently in front of me."
That depends on if you ignore the future. You are never just solving the problem in front of you; you should always act in a way that propagates positivity forward in time.
Some jobs require investment in the future. Some do not. That’s just reality. Not white how I feel about it personally, but I think there is a fair amount of the developer trade that is operational.