One of the best mails I received was from a CEO (or to put it mildly -- from the head of a startup I was working for) that he had sent to all the 'employees'. It was about a seemingly small fact which I had unconsciously felt on several occasions, but never actively thought about.
It went something like this: Between the time when you're given a problem, say an issue to troubleshoot, or a feature to implement, and the time that you actually start implementing or troubleshooting it: there is a something called "THINKING" required. I see a lot of you nodding when I tell you about an issue, or the next set of features to implement -- but then when I see the approach or the implemented feature -- the "THINKING" part seems to be lacking, or in some cases, absent. 'Thinking' is something that cannot be done on the fly but deserves a conscious time and effort!
The actual mail tone would have been more euphemistic that I can ever get, but the point I'm trying to highlight in this post is: I see it happening on so many occasions. That too in very senior developers, managers, etc. There is almost negligible time devoted to understanding the need or cause of a feature or issue -- and there is a restlessness to pounce to a solution. I think it might be driven by the assumption that one would be sort of 'one-up' or the 'apple of customers' eyes' or that one-true-deserving 'pat on the back' awardee. But such myopic approaches tend to bite back in the long run.