3 ms·

Some programs are solutions to problems that only you have. In this case, the problem is that you want to work in your comfort zone, not Excel. You built someth

Some programs are solutions to problems that only you have. In this case, the problem is that you want to work in your comfort zone, not Excel. You built something for yourself. Many other programmers have the same sort of problem, but a different comfort zone, so it becomes a different problem. They'll build something for themselves. Your actual selling points then seem more like post-hoc rationalizations: "LIKE EXCEL, JIG IS A LIGHTWEIGHT SOLUTION TO CREATE DYNAMIC BUSINESS REPORTS AND APPS IN MINUTES." Okay, I already got Excel here and everyone is trained in it. "UNLIKE EXCEL, JIG FILES ARE AUDITABLE, MAKING JIG APPS INHERENTLY SAFE." I don't care. Even if I switched some of my workloads over to Jig from Excel, I'd still be using Excel. The threat model that somebody sends me a malicious Excel file remains. The threat model that somebody sends me a malicious PDF file remains as well. It's also not the case that Excel files can't be audited, nor does the ability to audit something make it "inherently safe", because I still need to actually do the audit. > What would have most impact in getting the app in front of people? Maybe a better use of your time would be to just accept that there is no product-market fit, move on to something else. You still get to enjoy a program you made for yourself.

d--b 6y ago
It's interesting to see how way more brutal the feedback is when the post reaches the front page... > the problem is that you want to work in your comfort zone, not Excel. No, you shouldn't assume stuff when you write comments. My comfort zone is Excel. I've been writing Excel-based apps for 13 years, and from what I gathered, I am really good at it. I built this because I reached the limits of it. And I think that many other people have. You think Javascript is my comfort zone? I loathe javascript. But at this stage, I truly think this is the best option. > Your actual selling points then seem more like post-hoc rationalizations. No they're not. Excel is unsafe not because of malicious files, but because people make mistakes all the time in excel. This is a straight consequence of how Excel was designed. There is a history of major financial fuck ups directly linked to excel mistakes. Whether this tool is the solution remains to be seen. But that the problem exists there is no doubt.
- incrudible 6y ago
  > It's interesting to see how way more brutal the feedback is when the post reaches the front page... ...and refreshingly so. You're getting rid of a social filter. People lie to your face all the time. > No, you shouldn't assume stuff when you write comments. You can't do anything without assumptions. I got an assumption wrong and you got offended? Not a problem for me, you're the one soliciting feedback after all. > You think Javascript is my comfort zone? I loathe javascript. But at this stage, I truly think this is the best option. Yes, everyone's out there hating on Javascript and shipping Electron apps at the same time. That doesn't necessarily negate my point. As you say, you built it for yourself first. You had ideas on how you want to do things. Those ideas inevitably conflict with how other programmers want to do things. There's a reason why there's a hundred Javascript frontend frameworks still coming out every month, even though we already have React as the de-facto standard. Getting traction in such a domain is incredibly difficult. > No they're not. Excel is unsafe not because of malicious files, but because people make mistakes all the time in excel. If that's what you mean, here's your N=1 statistic saying "people don't get your message". > This is a straight consequence of how Excel was designed. There is a history of major financial fuck ups directly linked to excel mistakes. There's a history of major fuck ups in ordinary programming languages as well. It's not obvious how your solution might prevent such mistakes, especially without introducing a whole class of new mistakes.

d--b 6y ago

It's interesting to see how way more brutal the feedback is when the post reaches the front page... > the problem is that you want to work in your comfort zone, not Excel. No, you shouldn't assume stuff when you write comments. My comfort zone is Excel. I've been writing Excel-based apps for 13 years, and from what I gathered, I am really good at it. I built this because I reached the limits of it. And I think that many other people have. You think Javascript is my comfort zone? I loathe javascript. But at this stage, I truly think this is the best option. > Your actual selling points then seem more like post-hoc rationalizations. No they're not. Excel is unsafe not because of malicious files, but because people make mistakes all the time in excel. This is a straight consequence of how Excel was designed. There is a history of major financial fuck ups directly linked to excel mistakes. Whether this tool is the solution remains to be seen. But that the problem exists there is no doubt.

incrudible 6y ago
> It's interesting to see how way more brutal the feedback is when the post reaches the front page... ...and refreshingly so. You're getting rid of a social filter. People lie to your face all the time. > No, you shouldn't assume stuff when you write comments. You can't do anything without assumptions. I got an assumption wrong and you got offended? Not a problem for me, you're the one soliciting feedback after all. > You think Javascript is my comfort zone? I loathe javascript. But at this stage, I truly think this is the best option. Yes, everyone's out there hating on Javascript and shipping Electron apps at the same time. That doesn't necessarily negate my point. As you say, you built it for yourself first. You had ideas on how you want to do things. Those ideas inevitably conflict with how other programmers want to do things. There's a reason why there's a hundred Javascript frontend frameworks still coming out every month, even though we already have React as the de-facto standard. Getting traction in such a domain is incredibly difficult. > No they're not. Excel is unsafe not because of malicious files, but because people make mistakes all the time in excel. If that's what you mean, here's your N=1 statistic saying "people don't get your message". > This is a straight consequence of how Excel was designed. There is a history of major financial fuck ups directly linked to excel mistakes. There's a history of major fuck ups in ordinary programming languages as well. It's not obvious how your solution might prevent such mistakes, especially without introducing a whole class of new mistakes.