Winning while cutting corners is dangerous. It convinces you the corners didn’t matter.

Success can teach the wrong lesson. When a shortcut works once, the result looks like proof that the shortcut was fine, and you file away a conclusion that will cost you later on something that matters more. Outcomes are noisy enough that process and result come apart regularly. A win can hide a habit you would not defend out loud.

After something goes well, ask whether it went well because of what you did or in spite of it. Fix the part you know was thin, even though nobody caught it. That is the difference between a result and a method.