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You're conflating two different topics: 1. "Its easy to find many examples of apps that were challenging to build even just 10 years ago, that are somewhat tri

You're conflating two different topics: 1. "Its easy to find many examples of apps that were challenging to build even just 10 years ago, that are somewhat trivial now." Correct. It's easier now to build apps that we used 10-15 years ago. 2. "Do you agree or disagree that techproducts today are easier to build than 15 years ago?" Incorrect. Tech product complexity has increased in many ways in the last 15 years (and the increase in complexity is larger than the decrease in complexity we talked about above). -- Regulation. COPPA regulations strengthened significantly around 10 years ago. Europe's GDPR went into effect in like 2016. Those are just a couple popular ones. Remember when Amazon just didn't collect sales tax? Sure makes things easier! And remember, those laws are constantly changing. If NJ raises their sales tax, you better have someone paying attention. If Europe comes up with a new privacy law, you better have enough people to drop everything and implement everything that's needed. -- Scale + globalization. Myspace topped out at like 100 million active users around 15 years ago. Facebook is 30 times that size now! That scale comes with complexities most don't think about. How do you report user video ad income to the IRS-equivalent in Andorra? I don't know, but you now need to know at Facebook's scale!

orwin 3y ago
I'm automating network engineering. We still hire network engineers, and while scale/regulations are big reasons why, do not forget security. This can trigger entirety new projects. Some industries still transfer their driver updates in sealed, marked usb sticks to their clients. A lot of companies invested in IOT in the past 5 years, and just recently decided they wanted all their connected stuff to go through specific Cisco routers. Security is my SWE job security.
HWR_14 3y ago
Is there a giant difference in complexity between 100 million MAU and 3 billion MAU? It seems like "being present in Andorra" has the complexity, not the order of magnitude more users. That said, being present in Andorra is probably necessary to get to 3 billion MAU but not 100 million MAU.
- whateverman23 3y ago
  > That said, being present in Andorra is probably necessary to get to 3 billion MAU but not 100 million MAU. Exactly. You know those undersea cables that Google laid? Or Facebook's controversial "Free Basic" internet program in India? At a certain point you start to run out of people, and need to go to great lengths to get more people on the internet and using your services. And then you need to start a financial relationship with those people.

orwin 3y ago

I'm automating network engineering. We still hire network engineers, and while scale/regulations are big reasons why, do not forget security. This can trigger entirety new projects. Some industries still transfer their driver updates in sealed, marked usb sticks to their clients. A lot of companies invested in IOT in the past 5 years, and just recently decided they wanted all their connected stuff to go through specific Cisco routers. Security is my SWE job security.

HWR_14 3y ago

Is there a giant difference in complexity between 100 million MAU and 3 billion MAU? It seems like "being present in Andorra" has the complexity, not the order of magnitude more users. That said, being present in Andorra is probably necessary to get to 3 billion MAU but not 100 million MAU.

whateverman23 3y ago
> That said, being present in Andorra is probably necessary to get to 3 billion MAU but not 100 million MAU. Exactly. You know those undersea cables that Google laid? Or Facebook's controversial "Free Basic" internet program in India? At a certain point you start to run out of people, and need to go to great lengths to get more people on the internet and using your services. And then you need to start a financial relationship with those people.