3 ms·

I was always highly sceptical of vercel even though or maybe also because i really love the design and public appeal they are going for. But something about eve

I was always highly sceptical of vercel even though or maybe also because i really love the design and public appeal they are going for. But something about everything they do and talk about gives me the creeps, something is telling me that they are not genuine and keeping something. Its maybe the same feeling when you talk to a really pleasant to talk to person who you just know is a psychopath making the heir on your neck stand up. This was probably at the strongest when they could not decide on the edge function strategy and made a handful of statements that made no sense or made partial sense but were very clearly not the full picture. Buying rich harris while assuring this would have no impact on the level of sveltekit lock-in crossed a line for me to feel really anxious. So far i did not see anything concrete go bad with sveltekit but its hard to imagine a scenario where this would not happen. Lets hope rich can keep his integrity and awareness enough to walk away at the right time.

9rx 2y ago
I find the problem is that Vercel has great product vision, but is weak in the engineering department, so encounters end up in some kind of uncanny valley.
- mdhb 2y ago
  I think it’s literally the other way around. The CTOs previous role was in charge of Google’s search experience.
  - 9rx 2y ago
    > I think it’s literally the other way around. Aside from the "appeal to authority", what suggests to you that they are strong in engineering? > The CTOs previous role was in charge of Google’s search experience. Google search also having decent product vision, but poor engineering execution, sounds about right. I don't know how many times I've heard people say they want to use Google search but have to resort to silly hacks, like adding "site:reddit.com", just to get anything useful out of it. But, to be fair, he in particular only worked on "Google Search on Desktop" which probably isn't the search results department. The one text input box and two buttons did stay centered. I suppose some do say that is the hardest problem in engineering, but I'm pretty sure they are joking.
    - mdhb 2y ago
      This is truly peak HN. Yes, this multi billion dollar revenue stream is “one text input box and two buttons”. Truly amazing insights.

9rx 2y ago

I find the problem is that Vercel has great product vision, but is weak in the engineering department, so encounters end up in some kind of uncanny valley.

mdhb 2y ago
I think it’s literally the other way around. The CTOs previous role was in charge of Google’s search experience.
- 9rx 2y ago
  > I think it’s literally the other way around. Aside from the "appeal to authority", what suggests to you that they are strong in engineering? > The CTOs previous role was in charge of Google’s search experience. Google search also having decent product vision, but poor engineering execution, sounds about right. I don't know how many times I've heard people say they want to use Google search but have to resort to silly hacks, like adding "site:reddit.com", just to get anything useful out of it. But, to be fair, he in particular only worked on "Google Search on Desktop" which probably isn't the search results department. The one text input box and two buttons did stay centered. I suppose some do say that is the hardest problem in engineering, but I'm pretty sure they are joking.
  - mdhb 2y ago
    This is truly peak HN. Yes, this multi billion dollar revenue stream is “one text input box and two buttons”. Truly amazing insights.