I've always had an interest in social science. I think it's down to a particularly inspiring teacher at high school. In particular, I have always found the concept of delayed gratification (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_gratification) to be a fascinating one and I really believe that almost any conceivable measure of success can be attributed in part to an approach or appreciation of delayed gratification.

In software development we need particular vigilance to reap the rewards of delayed gratification for two reasons:

1. There can be a significant amount of time between the instant gratification (e.g. "it works" or "I've finished") and the ultimate gratification of shipping a product that is robust and makes peoples lives better.

2. The instant gratification is more direct (i.e. it feels good to have finished or to demonstrate something) whereas the long term gratification can be indirect (i.e. the avoidance of a failed release or shorter testing cycles).

When I think of the best software developers that I have worked with it's always the ones that deliver these indirect benefits that I relish the idea of working with.

I would stress that this approach doesn't have to coincide with a reduction in innovation and I would encourage team leads and managers to make more noise about the indirect successes of their teams.