2 ms·

Yes: the answer is that building almost always turns out to have unexpected advantages.

by pg 18y ago

noonespecial 18y ago
And in my experience buying often turns out to have hidden disadvantages. The biggest of which seems to me to be that whenever we've tried to buy (both off the shelf and contracted work), it always turned out to be as much trouble and effort as just taking the time to build the damn thing ourselves.
DenisM 18y ago
This is silly. You did not build your own laptop or your own accounting system, operating system or your own relational database. There is a crossover point somewhere where building makes more sense than buying, but finding that point is a delicate task for each business, a lot more complex than "yeah, just build it whatever it is".
- pg 18y ago
  I didn't say the advantages always outweigh the disadvantages, just that there are usually more advantages that you'd expect.
  - DenisM 18y ago
    I see. In that case why did you label your post as "answer" to "build or buy" question?
    - pg 18y ago
      Because that is the more nuanced answer to "build or buy?" Of course you don't always want to build. But in borderline cases, err on the side of building, because there are often hidden advantages to building. Are we clear now? Are you convinced I'm not advocating making your own electric power generation stations?
      - DenisM 18y ago
        Yep, it's clear what you meant now. I think this was a terminology misunderstanding - I don't see it as "the answer". "The answer" in my book is specific for each particular situation and your guideline is important to take into account for each such situation. I'm splitting hair now, but only to illustrate the source of misunderstanding. To advance the state of the art it would help if you created a list of cases where "build" produced unexpected advantage and a list of cases where it backfired. At least it would work better for me to calibrate properly. EDIT: It just occured to me that you answer to my answer is what curried function is to a function result. Throw in lazy evaluation and the line gets blurry. :-)

Yes: the answer is that building almost always turns out to have unexpected advantages.

by pg 18y ago

Yes: the answer is that building almost always turns out to have unexpected advantages.

And in my experience buying often turns out to have hidden disadvantages. The biggest of which seems to me to be that whenever we've tried to buy (both off the shelf and contracted work), it always turned out to be as much trouble and effort as just taking the time to build the damn thing ourselves.

DenisM 18y ago

This is silly. You did not build your own laptop or your own accounting system, operating system or your own relational database. There is a crossover point somewhere where building makes more sense than buying, but finding that point is a delicate task for each business, a lot more complex than "yeah, just build it whatever it is".

pg 18y ago
I didn't say the advantages always outweigh the disadvantages, just that there are usually more advantages that you'd expect.
- DenisM 18y ago
  I see. In that case why did you label your post as "answer" to "build or buy" question?
  - pg 18y ago
    Because that is the more nuanced answer to "build or buy?" Of course you don't always want to build. But in borderline cases, err on the side of building, because there are often hidden advantages to building. Are we clear now? Are you convinced I'm not advocating making your own electric power generation stations?
    - DenisM 18y ago
      Yep, it's clear what you meant now. I think this was a terminology misunderstanding - I don't see it as "the answer". "The answer" in my book is specific for each particular situation and your guideline is important to take into account for each such situation. I'm splitting hair now, but only to illustrate the source of misunderstanding. To advance the state of the art it would help if you created a list of cases where "build" produced unexpected advantage and a list of cases where it backfired. At least it would work better for me to calibrate properly. EDIT: It just occured to me that you answer to my answer is what curried function is to a function result. Throw in lazy evaluation and the line gets blurry. :-)