We had a director push for a new UI library last year. Our lead designer made a simple chart showing all the screens we'd have to rebuild. We also tracked two weeks of dev time spent on just one component switch. When they saw the numbers, the talk about "fresh" stopped fast. Showing the actual audit changed their mind.

Gravel's the only thing that hasn't tried to betray me. Mulch was always getting moldy or blowing into the yard like it had some kind of drama. Tried rubber mulch once and it just felt wrong, plus it got stupid hot. At this point I trust rocks more than most plants. Low upkeep just means less chance for the yard to plot against you.

Ever think about how much extra work gets created later because of design drift? We found our old inconsistent buttons and spacing meant every new feature had to be rebuilt from scratch instead of reused, which is why those weekly syncs save so much future pain.