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This debate feels like arguing whether real estate is debt or not. It can certainly be that way if you're leveraged to the max, the value of the property has g

by pavlov 3y ago

This debate feels like arguing whether real estate is debt or not. It can certainly be that way if you're leveraged to the max, the value of the property has gone down, and you're paying for maintenance. Then you're just losing money on the property. But ideally and commonly real estate is an asset with equity value. It's largely the same with code. It can be a liability, but it should be an asset. And if you don't want that risk on your books, there are increasingly many ways to rent code (SaaS / PaaS / etc.)

bob1029 3y ago
I like the analogy with real estate. It has that intrinsic decay element that large systems also suffer from. It also incorporates the "death by 1000 cuts" experience of dealing with a nonstop slew of minor problems week-by-week. In this analogy, I think you could compare vendors like Amazon and Microsoft to Blackstone. Scale is what makes the game work for these players. Very few get wealthy by personally lording over a handful of concerns in a single metro. Our model today is to rent out complexity & infra as much as possible. We don't want to own a single square foot of tech property if we can avoid it. We don't even have physical floor space in our corporate "office". We aren't particularly interested in the construction style or the brand of the lighting fixtures. We just want some kind of generic, air-conditioned box w/ WiFi to exist inside of while we conduct our actual business. The shorter & more flexible the lease terms, the better. If we could, we'd like to pay per minute of occupancy and only while we are on the property. That would be most ideal.
- tesdinger 3y ago
  Renting is fragile. The landlord decides how long you may stay. Ownership means being in control. I store things I like on my hard drives so I don't lose them when someone else decides it should no longer be available on the Internet .

by pavlov 3y ago

bob1029 3y ago

I like the analogy with real estate. It has that intrinsic decay element that large systems also suffer from. It also incorporates the "death by 1000 cuts" experience of dealing with a nonstop slew of minor problems week-by-week. In this analogy, I think you could compare vendors like Amazon and Microsoft to Blackstone. Scale is what makes the game work for these players. Very few get wealthy by personally lording over a handful of concerns in a single metro. Our model today is to rent out complexity & infra as much as possible. We don't want to own a single square foot of tech property if we can avoid it. We don't even have physical floor space in our corporate "office". We aren't particularly interested in the construction style or the brand of the lighting fixtures. We just want some kind of generic, air-conditioned box w/ WiFi to exist inside of while we conduct our actual business. The shorter & more flexible the lease terms, the better. If we could, we'd like to pay per minute of occupancy and only while we are on the property. That would be most ideal.

tesdinger 3y ago
Renting is fragile. The landlord decides how long you may stay. Ownership means being in control. I store things I like on my hard drives so I don't lose them when someone else decides it should no longer be available on the Internet .