4 ms·

A lot of people are going to jump on the "he used k8s and he doesn't even work at Google scale!" part of this writeup, but I think it's a perfect demonstration

by Sodman 6y ago

A lot of people are going to jump on the "he used k8s and he doesn't even work at Google scale!" part of this writeup, but I think it's a perfect demonstration of the concept of innovation tokens [1]. He admits in TFA that clickhouse was the only new piece of tech in his stack, and he was already familiar with k8s et al - so he's able to focus on actually building the products he wants. I could see somebody unfamiliar with k8s (but very familiar with all other pieces of tech in the system they want to build) being able to learn it as part of a side project, if it's the only new thing. Where the wheels come off is when you've never touched k8s, postgres, aws, rust, graphQL or vue - and you try to mash them all together in one ambitious project. [1] https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology

cloverich 6y ago
Innovation tokens is such a fantastic concept. When I brainstorm products I like to make a simple plan, and then map out "Whats new to me" to help me decide what I am really trying to accomplish. Prototyping a new idea is very hard and requires a lot of iteration, using a new tech complicates that even if its better. Alternatively, if the prototype is purely for fun, then new tech can be a great value add, as even if the prototype takes a turn for the worse (i.e. too hard to finish), you get satisfaction from learning some new tech. I've noticed since being very intentional about it, side project work has become considerably more enjoyable.
void_mint 6y ago
> Where the wheels come off is when you've never touched k8s, postgres, aws, rust, graphQL or vue - and you try to mash them all together in one ambitious project. In my experience (both myself and observing others) this is the cause of lots of side project (sometimes even startup) failure. Lots of people choose a tech stack that's far away from what they've worked with, so they never get past the "read the docs and try to get anything working" stage. For a real chance at completion it seems like the recipe for success is choosing a stack that's 1ish derivative away from a dev's competencies so they have a new and exciting thing to learn, but are able to continue progressing and adding value. I am also a person that, prior to using Azure, was an absolute "Kubernetes is a big waste of my time and I'll just skip it" person. I wrote it off as predominantly "resume-driven". Now, having used Azure for about a year, I'm rewriting all my Azure infra to use AKS to better insulate me from the inevitable issues that come up when I GTFO of the Azure sphere as soon as our credits run dry. And, what I'm learning, is Kubernetes is a just-fine deployment/orchestration/management tool for containerized infrastructure that is _not_ a massively complex microservices infra. It's just a more streamlined approach to scaling and managing cloud-agnostic tooling/containers.
brianwawok 6y ago
Picked up k8s as part of my a side project, that become my startup. I would say if you know docker, it's not hard. Especially when using managed google style. Setting up your own k8s cluster is a whole other thing.. That said I agree with the innovation token concept. None of this junk makes you money, solve a problem first.

by Sodman 6y ago

cloverich 6y ago

Innovation tokens is such a fantastic concept. When I brainstorm products I like to make a simple plan, and then map out "Whats new to me" to help me decide what I am really trying to accomplish. Prototyping a new idea is very hard and requires a lot of iteration, using a new tech complicates that even if its better. Alternatively, if the prototype is purely for fun, then new tech can be a great value add, as even if the prototype takes a turn for the worse (i.e. too hard to finish), you get satisfaction from learning some new tech. I've noticed since being very intentional about it, side project work has become considerably more enjoyable.

void_mint 6y ago

> Where the wheels come off is when you've never touched k8s, postgres, aws, rust, graphQL or vue - and you try to mash them all together in one ambitious project. In my experience (both myself and observing others) this is the cause of lots of side project (sometimes even startup) failure. Lots of people choose a tech stack that's far away from what they've worked with, so they never get past the "read the docs and try to get anything working" stage. For a real chance at completion it seems like the recipe for success is choosing a stack that's 1ish derivative away from a dev's competencies so they have a new and exciting thing to learn, but are able to continue progressing and adding value. I am also a person that, prior to using Azure, was an absolute "Kubernetes is a big waste of my time and I'll just skip it" person. I wrote it off as predominantly "resume-driven". Now, having used Azure for about a year, I'm rewriting all my Azure infra to use AKS to better insulate me from the inevitable issues that come up when I GTFO of the Azure sphere as soon as our credits run dry. And, what I'm learning, is Kubernetes is a just-fine deployment/orchestration/management tool for containerized infrastructure that is _not_ a massively complex microservices infra. It's just a more streamlined approach to scaling and managing cloud-agnostic tooling/containers.

brianwawok 6y ago

Picked up k8s as part of my a side project, that become my startup. I would say if you know docker, it's not hard. Especially when using managed google style. Setting up your own k8s cluster is a whole other thing.. That said I agree with the innovation token concept. None of this junk makes you money, solve a problem first.