Early on, it is best to choose a deployment option that supports fast experimentation, implementation, and delivery. This specifically points to using a Monolithic architecture in the early stages, because trying to solve distributed computing problems before the business problems are understood is an act of futility.

Architectures drive technologies, which drive skill sets. While we'd love for every team to be a full stack team that can work on any layer of the architecture, in practice that's often not an option.

Many poor systems come from an attempt to salvage a bad basic design and patch it with all kinds of cosmetic relief. Top-down design reduces the temptation. I am persuaded that top-down design is the most important new programming formalization of the decade.