Portable beats perfect. If a vendor cannot hand you sane CSV/JSON or a documented API escape hatch, jot that unease somewhere someone else will notice. Payloads behaving oddly deserve a mellow HTTP refresher—the MDN overview trims rabbit holes once headers fib.
Workflow control is etiquette
Decide what must live inside chat, tickets, Git, or the spreadsheet nobody wants to rename—then revisit quarterly when tools multiply like fridge magnets.
Comfort with saying “not ours”
Some data rightly belongs elsewhere; pretending otherwise creates moral debt. Boundary clarity helps sleep and timelines alike.