I think expectations broke as companies shifted from a focus on polished shrinkwrap to a ubiquitous race to market with continuous deployment. For them, “alpha

I think expectations broke as companies shifted from a focus on polished shrinkwrap to a ubiquitous race to market with continuous deployment. For them, “alpha” and “beta” became ways to say “fresh out of the oven” and high profile revenue-generating products were proudly emblazoned with those words for years. At this point, it doesn’t even mean anything. Half the internet is running on some 0.11.45-alpha of something or other, maintained by corporate engineering teams whose total compensation is in the millions. It makes it legitimately hard for people to know what to expect and what standard to hold things to.