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If you're working in a startup I hope you'll completely ignore this advice, unless the particular wheel you're reinventing is core to the product/service your s
by mullingitover 1y ago
If you're working in a startup I hope you'll completely ignore this advice, unless the particular wheel you're reinventing is core to the product/service your startup makes. If it's not, you're likely just setting your runway on fire and crashing the plane before takeoff.
- epolanski 1y agoYou still want to build a startup with people that know how to build wheels, and thus have done it professionally, in oss or personal projects.
- bawis 1y agoI guess it's more like an advice for personal wheels, not professional ones.
- lelanthran 1y agoIf you're in a startup and you aren't reinventing some particular wheel, where exactly is your value proposition?
- mullingitover 1y agoThat's why I added the clause: > unless the particular wheel you're reinventing is core to the product/service your startup makes If it's core to your product/service, absolutely reinvent the hell out of that wheel. That's your business. Put pneumatic spokes on it. Add a touchscreen. Embed a bespoke LLM. Go nuts. Just stay focused on your customers. Don't do a bunch of things that are frankly just resume builders for your senior engineers and don't add value for your customers.
- yxhuvud 1y agoYou are complaining about a symptom of not having enough experienced people onboard. Juniors will make a mess, regardless of if they try to use something existing or reinvent the wheel. Knowing when and what to reinvent is just a function of having worked at more places and for long enough to see what is good and bad with the existing solutions.
- collyw 1y agoI have had to maintain rewritten libraries by seniors. Crappy, buggy and undocumented with no tests.
- vendiddy 1y agoI don't find this to be absolutely true. At our company we reinvented a handful of wheels because the existing solutions were too complex. And complexity slows you down. It's not this clear cut.