> Also, the other side of it is that evolutionary projects are just more fun. I’ve preferred them. You’re not loaded down with all those messy dependencies. Way fewer meetings, so you can just get into the work and see how it goes. Endlessly arguing about fiddly details in a giant spec is draining, made worse if the experience around you is weak.

IMO the problem isn't discussing the spec per se. It's that the spec doesn't talk back the way actual working code does. On a "big upfront design" project, there is a high chance you're spending a lot of time on moot issues and irrelevant features.

Making a good spec is much harder than making working software, because the spec may not be right AND the spec may not describe the right thing.