For years, many tech companies have embraced Mark Zuckerberg’s early career mantra: “Move fast and break things.” The phrase has become synonymous with the bold, risk-taking ethos of the tech industry. But as the sector matures and the stakes grow higher, its value as a guiding principle is up for debate (indeed, in 2014 Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s motto had been updated to “Move fast with stable infrastructure”).Proponents argue that moving quickly is still essential to staying ahead of the curve, while critics caution that speed without structure can erode trust, destabilize systems and compromise security. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council share their perspectives on the philosophy’s place in today’s environment. 1. More Competition Necessitates Faster Development Vibe coding allows anyone to create prototypes at the speed of thought; soon, it will be full applications. Code is not going to have a moat, but network effects will. This will increase competition and make “move fast and break things” not only more relevant, but also necessary in many cases. We will see an explosion of applications and ideas, but also technical debt and security vulnerabilities. – Albert Castellana, GenLayer 2. Continuous Innovation Requires Rapid Iteration Tech is evolving—almost on a minute-by-minute basis—and this forces us to embrace the concept of moving fast. The innovation that comes along with this rapid evolution means that one must break things to create a better mousetrap. Another way to view it would be to move fast, fail early, learn and do it again! – Ray Culver, CWsolutions Group 3. Waiting For Perfection Invites Irrelevance “Move fast and break things” remains vital today because AI drastically lowers the cost of experimentation, making rapid iteration more accessible than ever. Waiting to perfect ideas invites irrelevance—our competitors are already moving fast, learning faster. In a landscape this dynamic, bold execution beats cautious planning. Speed is no longer a luxury; it’s a survival skill. – Nick Burling, Nasuni 4. It Can Disrupt Core Business Systems While “move fast and break things” might be viable in internet and Web applications—such as rolling out a new Web UI for a content-streaming app—the strategy can be particularly harmful when applied to core functional applications like ERP. Without careful consideration, a “move fast” approach can disrupt core and well-established functional processes within an organization, leading to value erosion. – Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Alix Partners 5. It Puts The Stability Of Widely Used Tools At Risk The “move fast and break things” mindset has become more harmful than helpful. What worked for early startups is dangerous when applied to systems millions depend on. Today’s tools—like automated testing, gradual rollouts and feature flags—let teams move quickly without being reckless. True speed comes from building reliable systems, not constantly fixing broken ones. – Swati Tyagi 6. A ‘Move Fast, Contain Breakage’ Mindset Is More Effective The key is knowing when to move fast—and when to slow down. Speed matters when customer needs are urgent, but unchecked velocity can break trust. Embrace a “move fast, contain breakage” mindset: Prototype in safe environments, validate outcomes fast and then scale. Learning rapidly without risking quality keeps innovation and credibility on track. The idea of failing fast and learning quickly comes to mind. – Gaurav Sharda, Beacon Mobility 7. It Raises Ethics And Trust Concerns “Move fast and break things” can spark rapid innovation, but in today’s tech landscape—where teams work heavily with AI and user data—it often causes more harm than good. Stability, ethics and trust now matter more than speed alone. – Roshan Mahant, LaunchIT Corp. 8. Combining Boldness With Mechanisms To Course-Correct Fosters Agility With AI and tech evolving at lightning speed, the real risk is standing still. We’re all pushing the limits of what’s possible—and that means not everything will work the first time. But progress depends on speed, experimentation and learning fast. The key is being bold while building in the mechanisms to course-correct quickly. Agility is the edge. – Sarah Edwards, Kantata 9. It Helps Startups But Risks Brand Reputation At Scale An agile mindset is imperative in today’s technology world. If you are a startup, “move fast and break things” is still valid, as you need to fail cheaply and disrupt to get the first-mover advantage in the market. However, this strategy might be harmful for publicly traded companies—each failure is reported, which could impact a company’s reputation. – Hari Sonnenahalli, NTT Data Business Solutions 10. Applied Recklessly, It Can Lead To Poor Quality, Security Issues And Tech Debt The “move fast and break things” mindset can still be valuable in tech when it encourages rapid innovation and experimentation. It pushes teams to take risks, learn quickly from failures and avoid getting bogged down by perfection. However, it can become harmful when it’s applied recklessly, leading to poor quality, technical debt or neglect of long-term security and user safety. – Jay Krishnan, NAIB IT Consultancy Solutions WLL 11. It Only Works When Paired With Accountability Moving fast is valuable—when it’s intentional. We need to break assumptions, not user experiences. Moving fast drives innovation, but it only works when paired with accountability, iteration and a strong sense of responsibility. – Pallishree Panigrahi, Amazon Key 12. The Key Is Safely Identifying And Learning From Failures In today’s fast-paced world, moving quickly helps us find gaps and drive innovation, but speed must have purpose. Security, compliance and trust cannot be compromised. The key is to safely identify failures, learn from them, fix issues quickly and repeat the process. Finding the right balance allows for continuous improvement of solutions and being competitive without risking stability. – Harikrishnan Muthukrishnan, Florida Blue 13. It’s Essential To Remember What’s At Stake When moving fast and breaking things, we too often overlook what might be broken and, more importantly, who owns it. Whether it’s copyrighted AI training data or patient information in a cybersecurity breach, if IT “breaks things” in a way that exposes sensitive data or infringes on the rights of others, the result can quickly lead to morally and