In 1982, the Lisa software team implemented a system to track engineers' productivity based on the lines of code written weekly. Bill Atkinson, a key developer, opposed this metric, believing it encouraged poor coding practices. After optimizing a component of the software and reducing the code by 2,000 lines, he humorously reported his productivity as -2000, leading to the management ceasing their requests for his reports.

Quality in software is often misunderstood and mismanaged, with traditional centralized approaches relying on KPIs and leadership biases. This article argues for a shift towards decentralized quality, where standards emerge organically from those directly involved in the work, fostering resilience and meeting user expectations more effectively.