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> Or build a well structured system that lasts longer. What if you had the ability to build a system that was initially structured well enough such that it cou

> Or build a well structured system that lasts longer. What if you had the ability to build a system that was initially structured well enough such that it could be made to last indefinitely? From a cost/benefit standpoint, is the Ship of Theseus approach not the most ideal for a business owner? Even for a developer, the notion that you have to constantly "trojan horse" your new product iterations into production via the existing paths means you will achieve mastery over clever workarounds and other temporary shims. Once you gain competence in this area, it is possible that you will never want for a new boat again. You start to get attached to the old one and all of the things it takes care of that you absolutely forgot about years ago.

WJW 4y ago
> if you had the ability to build a system that was initially structured well enough such that it could be made to last indefinitely If you could have that, it would obviously be amazing. Do you (or anyone) have that ability though? So far it seems the answer is no. People are just not smart enough to predict the future. As a more nuanced answer, a system that is scalable enough to grow to 1000x the current load is usually way too expensive to build with the resources you have "right now". The best you can do is build a system for 10-100x the current load and hope you haven't forgotten any edge cases, but usually you encounter them way sooner than 10x the load. Building so that you can easily refactor your current system is the way to go, but even then you will sooner or later run into problems your original design did not consider.
- bob1029 4y ago
  The point I am trying to make is that if your system can survive in production under realistic workload for some period of time (i.e. the boat floats & makes it out of the harbor), then what is preventing you from taking that success and incrementally moving it further into a preferred direction?

WJW 4y ago

> if you had the ability to build a system that was initially structured well enough such that it could be made to last indefinitely If you could have that, it would obviously be amazing. Do you (or anyone) have that ability though? So far it seems the answer is no. People are just not smart enough to predict the future. As a more nuanced answer, a system that is scalable enough to grow to 1000x the current load is usually way too expensive to build with the resources you have "right now". The best you can do is build a system for 10-100x the current load and hope you haven't forgotten any edge cases, but usually you encounter them way sooner than 10x the load. Building so that you can easily refactor your current system is the way to go, but even then you will sooner or later run into problems your original design did not consider.

bob1029 4y ago
The point I am trying to make is that if your system can survive in production under realistic workload for some period of time (i.e. the boat floats & makes it out of the harbor), then what is preventing you from taking that success and incrementally moving it further into a preferred direction?