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I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but have you ever worked for a company where you were involved with making physical things? Making things is an incre
by nickysielicki 5y ago
I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but have you ever worked for a company where you were involved with making physical things?
Making things is an incredibly difficult dance between electrical engineers, purchasers, manufacturers, sales and product managers, and logistics teams. I think that people who work exclusively in software often trivialize how difficult it is to choose how many of something to produce, how many extra pieces to keep around for repairs, etc., because they took some EE classes in school and they think that they basically understand the process of making boards.
The reality is the actual engineering is usually the easy part. The hard part is logistics, and it's not something that you can just outsource to a dedicated purchaser and be done with. Software people don't actually have something analogous.
For everyone that works in hardware, the last 2 years has been hell in terms of quickly redesigning things around parts availability, often stripping functionality entirely and reevaluating how it can be done generically in software without a certain chip. We make PoE devices and we can't get validated ethernet PHYs.
Basically, what I'm saying is this: as someone who sees how things are made, the idea that there's some guiding principle of being evil or some principle of maximizing overall bottom line at all costs and making shit products is just so far from the truth that it makes my head spin. Things suck because it's hard.
- andrei_says_ 5y agoI totally get that. I also remember the little Nokias with replaceable batteries. And I’m wondering - wouldn’t standardizing batteries make the availability issue easier to solve? Could you - from the viewpoint of your expertise help me understand why this is something that wouldn’t work? I know my view is pretty simplistic.
- max51 5y ago>The reality is the actual engineering is usually the easy part. The hard part is logistics I disagree. It's the opposite. If you have a hard logistic problem to solve, there is a very large number of companies who can solve all your issue very quickly. Moving cargo around the globe, renting buildings, buying off-the-self industrial equipment, etc.. that's a problem that has been solved a long time ago. All you need is money and a few phone calls. Designing a good product on the other hand is not something that gets a lot more complicated and most companies can't do it even with best efforts, good talents, and lots of cash.