A stitch in time saves nine, is a fundamental principals we should use to write code and build systems.   It might be said, a stitch in time saves you from being stuck forever with unruly software.

People just want to get the job done.  But any small mistake or short sightedness up front in critical parts of the system, will trip you up right away in the next wave of feature enhancements, and bug fixes.

An ounce of good design is worth a million dollars a few years down the road, for the people who will be depending on it later.

And good design — takes a little more time.