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Software margins are good, especially compared to physical things. However, the marginal cost is far from zero. It scales with # and variety of users. Today, al

by shon 3y ago

Software margins are good, especially compared to physical things. However, the marginal cost is far from zero. It scales with # and variety of users. Today, all software comes with complex dependencies. Take for example any mobile app. Apps require constant upgrades to keep up with the hardware and software changes on the platforms. You can’t just build an iPhone app and leave it alone to be enjoyed by people. I’ve tried, within a year or two there will be changes that require developer work, if you don’t keep it maintained, it will start to crash and function poorly, Apple, for example, tracks everything and will start with de-boosting search results for your app and end with removing it from the platform entirely. Google is the same. I’ve tried, I built a Top 25 RPG and got busy with other things. It went from Top 25 to deplatformed in less 5 years because unmaintained software just doesn’t work in most cases today. Software is more complex now. All software is a conglomeration of lots of other software: frameworks, platform tools, libraries, APIs, etc. Another example: Flash Another example: All the AI software being written on top of the OpenAI API will be broken in a year or two as they roll new versions of the API and deprecate the old. Software doesn’t just work anymore. The platform that executes it is constantly changing.

david422 3y ago
> You can’t just build an iPhone app and leave it alone to be enjoyed by people. I’ve tried, within a year or two there will be changes that require developer work, if you don’t keep it maintained, it will start to crash and function poorly My favorite is when a new Apple update breaks your app, so you identify where the issue is and make a small update, but now Apple rejects your update because of some other arbitrary guidelines it's changed, so you then have to start down that rabbit hole.
JohnFen 3y ago
> Software doesn’t just work anymore. The platform that executes it is constantly changing. It depends on the software. But where this is true, it's not because of some innate nature of software, it's because of business decisions software companies have made.
- shon 3y ago
  I disagree. Especially for business software. Unlike hobby software, where you could reasonably write everything from scratch just for fun, or say in write it in 6502 ASM which hasn’t changed at all for 50 years and won’t change in 50 more, in modern business software, you use common frameworks, APIs, platforms. All of those mean the software you write will fail as those dependencies and platforms change and age out. Business software has to be built on common building blocks because as a business you need to be able to hire people who can work on it. So things like Java and node and react and dozens of APIs exist which creates dependencies and requires ongoing maintenance as those components continue to change.

by shon 3y ago

david422 3y ago

> You can’t just build an iPhone app and leave it alone to be enjoyed by people. I’ve tried, within a year or two there will be changes that require developer work, if you don’t keep it maintained, it will start to crash and function poorly My favorite is when a new Apple update breaks your app, so you identify where the issue is and make a small update, but now Apple rejects your update because of some other arbitrary guidelines it's changed, so you then have to start down that rabbit hole.

JohnFen 3y ago

> Software doesn’t just work anymore. The platform that executes it is constantly changing. It depends on the software. But where this is true, it's not because of some innate nature of software, it's because of business decisions software companies have made.

shon 3y ago
I disagree. Especially for business software. Unlike hobby software, where you could reasonably write everything from scratch just for fun, or say in write it in 6502 ASM which hasn’t changed at all for 50 years and won’t change in 50 more, in modern business software, you use common frameworks, APIs, platforms. All of those mean the software you write will fail as those dependencies and platforms change and age out. Business software has to be built on common building blocks because as a business you need to be able to hire people who can work on it. So things like Java and node and react and dozens of APIs exist which creates dependencies and requires ongoing maintenance as those components continue to change.