Form over substance

This is something that we're easy to fall into. "Form" is how it looks and substance is what it really brings to the table at the end of the day.

If you don't care about "form", your idea/project will have less chance for people to notice. It's bad because good ideas can be wasted that way.

However, I'm more worried about the later, where substance is put aside or severely lacking and people still don't realize it because... well, the form is good.

In your life, form is what you buy (e.g. smart phone), substance is what you do. That's why 1 of my favorite quotes is this

"when you don't create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability"

It reminds me that many stuffs on my (not so cheap) smartphone is crap, that people with expensive camera don't really take beautiful photos at all time

In your work, form is when you have a beautiful presentation, when you use buzzwords and fancy terms. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but the substance is : do you mean what you mean, do people understand it and does it actually bring value to your team, your project.

I hope this will be meaningful for some. I still need to remind me about this (do not fancy form over substance) from time to time.