wow i'm surprised to see this thread. a lot has happened since then (that was my original handle).
i agree with you guys, i've been through a decent handful of production systems and none of them have ever survived the long haul in a strict vacuum. over time i've gravitated toward a more flexible and significantly more discretionary application of coded rulesets. this year has been my weakest out of the last 4, a few systems are failing simultaneously on me lately, but still beating my old bank salary on avg so whatever it's all good
you know in retrospect, the hardest thing for me to put into practice has still been the craft of inaction as a strategy in itself..
great analogy wrt the needle in the haystack