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It occurs to me that young people may be better at bootstrapping in a scrappy way, because they don't yet have the knowledge and experience to immediately consi
by mwcampbell 9y ago
It occurs to me that young people may be better at bootstrapping in a scrappy way, because they don't yet have the knowledge and experience to immediately consider all the things that would be required in a mature implementation. Speaking for myself, now that I'm approaching middle age (37), if I contemplate developing a new product from scratch, I risk paralysis by analysis, overthinking every aspect of it. I certainly didn't do that when I was 21.
Scrappy bootstrapping is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it brings us great new products. On the other hand, ignoring some real-world concerns can be a major problem for users. As just one example, consider the impact for people with disabilities (e.g. blind, mobility impaired) who need to use an app that was developed with no regard for accessibility. And I've blissfully ignored other real-world concerns myself. For instance, the first desktop app that I worked on (in my 20s) had no support for HTTP proxies (as often found in corporate networks back then).