5 ms·

In theory, a good _independent_ product with an active user base and a profitable model has a better than average chance of surviving (bus factor aside). Shoul

In theory, a good _independent_ product with an active user base and a profitable model has a better than average chance of surviving (bus factor aside). Should the creator want to move on, someone should find the revenue stream attractive for some (even small) amount of money. I’d bet on baseline profitability to keep something alive over an outsized dream of future growth or potential synergies almost every time.

zamnos 4y ago
“In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.” - Benjamin Brewster, https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/04/14/theory/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/04/14/theory/ I'm a normal enough person and so I can get good at most things. But, it'll take a few tries to get good at it. Riding a bike, swimming, SATs, etc. The first time I rode a bike was a disaster. I hurt myself and fell off. But I got back on and built up my bike balancing skills and, well, now I can ride a bike without falling off. Soft skills, like managing people, are just like that. Another skillset to build, with practice, just like in an RPG. But one thing that I've never had to do before is find a successor to own my business. It's just not a muscle I've ever used. Nor, I bet, have many other people. So when Mark Fletcher, who seems like he's held this since before the Yahoo times, decides he's had enough and wants to retire, is he going to have a well practiced "find a successor" muscle? or is he going to fall off the bike, disastrously? Because the other thing about riding a bike is that you can read all the books, listen to all the podcasts about it, but that all pales in comparison to actually riding a bike and practicing. You know who does have experience with replacing people like they're cogs in a machine though and nominating successor? Giant machines aka Google in this context. So to each their own. I'm going to bet on dogfood keeping the dog alive until the owner decides it doesn't love the dog called Google Groups any more. I'm still very sad about Google Reader being put out to pasture and more recently Stadia, but lovable the German Shepard of a dog that is Search won't stop getting love from it's owner Alphabet and neither will Keep.
zamnos 4y ago
My problem is that the bus factor can't be put aside when it's such a small number, and that pile of "should"s add up to just as much, if not more, uncertainty, compared to Google letting groups living on in a half zombified state essentially forever. At the very least, you have to admit that once you put some thought into it, it's not as cut and dried as "boo hoo Google killed off Reader in 2011 and I'm still salty about it" (which, tbc, I am.)
- redeeman 4y ago
  google kinda has a track record here

zamnos 4y ago

“In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.” - Benjamin Brewster, https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/04/14/theory/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/04/14/theory/ I'm a normal enough person and so I can get good at most things. But, it'll take a few tries to get good at it. Riding a bike, swimming, SATs, etc. The first time I rode a bike was a disaster. I hurt myself and fell off. But I got back on and built up my bike balancing skills and, well, now I can ride a bike without falling off. Soft skills, like managing people, are just like that. Another skillset to build, with practice, just like in an RPG. But one thing that I've never had to do before is find a successor to own my business. It's just not a muscle I've ever used. Nor, I bet, have many other people. So when Mark Fletcher, who seems like he's held this since before the Yahoo times, decides he's had enough and wants to retire, is he going to have a well practiced "find a successor" muscle? or is he going to fall off the bike, disastrously? Because the other thing about riding a bike is that you can read all the books, listen to all the podcasts about it, but that all pales in comparison to actually riding a bike and practicing. You know who does have experience with replacing people like they're cogs in a machine though and nominating successor? Giant machines aka Google in this context. So to each their own. I'm going to bet on dogfood keeping the dog alive until the owner decides it doesn't love the dog called Google Groups any more. I'm still very sad about Google Reader being put out to pasture and more recently Stadia, but lovable the German Shepard of a dog that is Search won't stop getting love from it's owner Alphabet and neither will Keep.

zamnos 4y ago

My problem is that the bus factor can't be put aside when it's such a small number, and that pile of "should"s add up to just as much, if not more, uncertainty, compared to Google letting groups living on in a half zombified state essentially forever. At the very least, you have to admit that once you put some thought into it, it's not as cut and dried as "boo hoo Google killed off Reader in 2011 and I'm still salty about it" (which, tbc, I am.)

redeeman 4y ago
google kinda has a track record here