I think Joel really has the right answer here, there is no right answer. This battle of the theoretical vs the practical has raged through history in just about every field. Sure, we all know it is wrong to speed in theory, but in practice we really are in a hurry... The solution, as it always has been, is to strive for the theoretical solution but understand that we will never actually get there and that we live in the practical world.
Cheers!
Martian Headsets
via Joel on Software by Joel Spolsky on 3/17/08
