alt Hacker News> A cook cannot spend time making every dish perfect.
That's too generalised. A fast food cook can't spend time to make things perfect. A tiny, fancy Japanese place will spend time to manually craft a perfect dish and you'll wait while watching the whole process.
I suspect that you can find something similar in every category you mentioned.
> watching the whole process
I think this is worth exploring. Not shoving the details of work in people's faces to assert its quality, but somehow creating some drama or interest in its quality. In a way compatible with the immediate practical needs.
This isn't an easy problem to solve. And the example of a boutique Japanese restaurant is a good one. In this case, the process is designed to make consuming the food, the immediate practical problem, more satisfying.
Perhaps the code equivalent, would be seeing changes in sequence, where each change is obviously well done from the user's and manager's perspective. A process more easily achieved by green field work. Which is also relevant to the restaurant example, where each dish is its own creation (within a well thought out process).