Prioritizing Shipment over Core Values in Houdini

The speaker reflects on past projects where excitement was shown for features that didn't align with core values. They mention that the focus was on layout work and the CSS parser API for extensibility, but projects like the CSS parser API didn't progress beyond an empty readme file. They express disappointment in compromises that led to the development of the animation worklet which was hard to implement effectively. The speaker suggests that the priorities for shipping did not resonate with the core essence of Houdini, pointing out that features like scrolling effects might have been better served by a declarative approach. Reflecting on the prioritized features, the speaker indicates that they deviated from Houdini's true purpose.