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I agree with most of what you wrote but I strongly disagree with the fact that customers starting to demand reliability is a scenario that should happen before

by cybrox 3y ago

I agree with most of what you wrote but I strongly disagree with the fact that customers starting to demand reliability is a scenario that should happen before you start thinking about hosting your own software. Treating stability and reliability as an afterthought is one of the main things that's wrong with the tech industry at the moment, I would argue. It's a competitive market. Move fast and break things but at least have the requirement to be as reliable as possible from the get to. Alas, this is written from a user and tech enthusiasts standpoint. I know it's a futile argument since reliability is not a requirement for growing a project far enough to get a worthwhile exit, so we will continue to "enjoy" unstable products.

Zetice 3y ago
Sorry but couldn’t disagree more strongly about reliability and stability. Those are afterthoughts because a buggy, unreliable service that solves a critical pain point for a customer is fixable, but a perfectly operational service that doesn’t do much for people isn’t. Startups trying to find a market need to cut every corner imaginable to minimize any work that isn’t related to finding the customer, as this is the existential crisis.
- spacebanana7 3y ago
  There’s great precedent for low reliability products becoming popular. ChatGPT and Twitter both became widely adopted despite frequent downtime. This extends well beyond software. The Ford Model T other early motor vehicles weren’t exactly safe and reliable but still solved a real problem for millions of customers.
- cybrox 3y ago
  There is a lot of wiggle room between a buggy, unreliable service and a perfectly operational service. And yes, as I said, from a business point of view, I absolutely agree with what you say. From a user's perspective, I don't. And I hope more people will start to reject adopting buggy, unreliable projects in the future.
agentultra 3y ago
I understand your objection. I also value reliability. I would say I'm a bit more conservative about joining startups for this reason (and the fact that I have to be prepared to be out of a job in a year or two if things don't work out). I would prefer not to spend my time frustrated and compromising on my values unless I'm willing to take the risk for the payout. But that's the reality of startups: spending too much time on reliability when it's not needed is wasted effort. As a startup you can at least pull the "choose boring tech" lever and rely on the frameworks/library's/services to care about reliability for you.

by cybrox 3y ago

Zetice 3y ago

Sorry but couldn’t disagree more strongly about reliability and stability. Those are afterthoughts because a buggy, unreliable service that solves a critical pain point for a customer is fixable, but a perfectly operational service that doesn’t do much for people isn’t. Startups trying to find a market need to cut every corner imaginable to minimize any work that isn’t related to finding the customer, as this is the existential crisis.

spacebanana7 3y ago
There’s great precedent for low reliability products becoming popular. ChatGPT and Twitter both became widely adopted despite frequent downtime. This extends well beyond software. The Ford Model T other early motor vehicles weren’t exactly safe and reliable but still solved a real problem for millions of customers.
cybrox 3y ago
There is a lot of wiggle room between a buggy, unreliable service and a perfectly operational service. And yes, as I said, from a business point of view, I absolutely agree with what you say. From a user's perspective, I don't. And I hope more people will start to reject adopting buggy, unreliable projects in the future.

agentultra 3y ago

I understand your objection. I also value reliability. I would say I'm a bit more conservative about joining startups for this reason (and the fact that I have to be prepared to be out of a job in a year or two if things don't work out). I would prefer not to spend my time frustrated and compromising on my values unless I'm willing to take the risk for the payout. But that's the reality of startups: spending too much time on reliability when it's not needed is wasted effort. As a startup you can at least pull the "choose boring tech" lever and rely on the frameworks/library's/services to care about reliability for you.