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It’s a trade off. Would you rather have more software with more features or less software that runs fast and efficiently? The market has clearly spoken in favo

It’s a trade off. Would you rather have more software with more features or less software that runs fast and efficiently? The market has clearly spoken in favor of the former. After all, the goal of engineering isn’t to produce some abstract beautiful art but rather to create something valuable for regular humans. Also the car and building analogies are poor because they are essentially the same design that has been optimized for decades. Indeed the only “new features” in cars are usually software driven and probably just as inefficient.

mcluck 3y ago
Has the market spoken? I agree that it's largely true but I am not aware of anyone selling software with an emphasis on performance. It's always been about new, shiny features. You can't really say the market decided if one half of the equation isn't even on the market
- pif 3y ago
  Wanna try it yourself?
- mstipetic 3y ago
  Linear and Superhuman kinda put performance front and center in their messaging
- dazh 3y ago
  One of Superhuman's value props is its speed compared to regular email clients
infamouscow 3y ago
This is a false choice. Demand software with features and performs efficiently. If anything, the last several years in the software industry have proven hordes of mediocre developers really isn't a substitute for understanding how computers work. The phenomena we're seeing now is VC money has dried up for all but those focused on efficiency, and the rats are scrambling to run to the other side of the ship before it sinks.
V__ 3y ago
Except, in my experience, they don't have more features. Has Slack fundamentally changed in the last years, or Zoom, Teams etc? Why haven't these apps been optimized by now? Same for web apps, why is Facebook, Gmail slow? I could accept it for new products but not for nearly unchanged products after all these years. Btw: Gmail HTML was fast, so it can't be an infra problem, it's bad frontend programming.

mcluck 3y ago

Has the market spoken? I agree that it's largely true but I am not aware of anyone selling software with an emphasis on performance. It's always been about new, shiny features. You can't really say the market decided if one half of the equation isn't even on the market

pif 3y ago
Wanna try it yourself?
mstipetic 3y ago
Linear and Superhuman kinda put performance front and center in their messaging
dazh 3y ago
One of Superhuman's value props is its speed compared to regular email clients

infamouscow 3y ago

This is a false choice. Demand software with features and performs efficiently. If anything, the last several years in the software industry have proven hordes of mediocre developers really isn't a substitute for understanding how computers work. The phenomena we're seeing now is VC money has dried up for all but those focused on efficiency, and the rats are scrambling to run to the other side of the ship before it sinks.

V__ 3y ago

Except, in my experience, they don't have more features. Has Slack fundamentally changed in the last years, or Zoom, Teams etc? Why haven't these apps been optimized by now? Same for web apps, why is Facebook, Gmail slow? I could accept it for new products but not for nearly unchanged products after all these years. Btw: Gmail HTML was fast, so it can't be an infra problem, it's bad frontend programming.