3 ms·

I once was an intern in a company that wanted to rewrite the whole Reddit code in .net. The founder was a charming person and managed to raise a huge pile of mo

by iowai 12y ago

I once was an intern in a company that wanted to rewrite the whole Reddit code in .net. The founder was a charming person and managed to raise a huge pile of money. "We can redo this with current technology and elegant design! We will run circles around Reddit!". We had a great time. Free snacks, lot's of parties, luxurious office furniture, skateboarding in the hall... In the end, the company ran out of money before the product reached a useful state. Good times. It has been some time since then and I have a "normal" job now. Last thing I heard about the founder is that he started a new vc backed company destined to run circles around something.

cpach 12y ago
That’s odd. As if the programming language itself is what makes Reddit what it is :)
- weego 12y ago
  Unfortunately from my experience, people thinking that background technology choices can give them a consumer advantage is not that uncommon.
  - kysol 12y ago
    That or more hardware to overcome bottlenecks caused by bad code. "It's running slow, we need more memory!". After some investigation, really... you've got 8 joins without using keys, and you're getting paid more than us how?
  - mdonohue 12y ago
    FYI, that includes pg's thinking on the use of lisp for viaweb http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html
  - coldtea 12y ago
    >FYI, that includes pg's thinking on the use of lisp for viaweb Yeah, I for one think this was equally flawed. People have made succesful and quickly iteratable web services/apps in all kinds of languages, including Perl and PHP. Plus, one single data source like pg had is never that accurate, plus the fact he and Martin were already Lisp guru s helped them in their use of it.
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    Well, they're right pretty much by definition - otherwise it wouldn't matter at all what technology you use. You could code your CRUDs in Brainfuck connected to MongoDB. In real world, you gain consumer advantage by e.g. chosing right database for the problem, or playing to language's strengths (which is what pg done at Viaweb).
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
  - conradfr 12y ago
    So true, while neglecting UI and usability. I guess developers hate that for people UI is your product. Spend months rewriting the most beautiful backend and nobody care, redesign a button and everyone is excited.
sudowhodoido 12y ago
I must have spent my entire time between 2004-2008 working for companies that did that sort of thing (rewrite to .Net). Plenty of cash to burn with no real possibility of success and no business plan. In two cases, the guys running it knew it was going to fail from day one and their business model was to do this in two year chunks, syphon the cash out of the VCs after talking the product up, live the high life and disappear for a bit. I felt no shame working for them back then but I do now.
seanmcdirmid 12y ago
To be fair, you can build a decent social site out of .net; e.g. Stack Overflow does quite well. But its not a main factor.
- Cthulhu_ 12y ago
  To be fair you can build a decent anything out of any language / framework / environment; the point is, technology doesn't matter that much if your product is good. Look at Twitter or something for example, they built a product in a language they were comfortable with, and evolved from there.
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    I totally agree with that.
smanuel 12y ago
He was obviously obsessed by .net and circles. But what do you mean by "circles around Reddit" or "circles around something"? Like... g+ circles?
- no_gravity 12y ago
  It's a figure of speech. See how people use it: http://news.gnod.com/search?f=run+circles+around http://news.gnod.com/search?f=run+circles+around
  - smanuel 12y ago
    Thanks! It would be interesting to know what made this guy think that "elegant design" and using .net is the way to run circles around Reddit but...
eksith 12y ago
Honestly the premise, the model and database matter a whole lot more than the language. The premise is the most important as how it's presented to everyone is determined by it. The model is only to help you get your head around it; users don't (and shouldn't have to) care what you do in the backend. The database will dictate what you choose to store and how often. Even rubbish code, in any language, can survive for a lot longer by shifting the spotlight of scrutiny to the biggest bottleneck, the database. Which will also be the deciding factor in reducing growing pains.
jammy47 12y ago
User first, then technology

by iowai 12y ago

cpach 12y ago

That’s odd. As if the programming language itself is what makes Reddit what it is :)

weego 12y ago
Unfortunately from my experience, people thinking that background technology choices can give them a consumer advantage is not that uncommon.
- kysol 12y ago
  That or more hardware to overcome bottlenecks caused by bad code. "It's running slow, we need more memory!". After some investigation, really... you've got 8 joins without using keys, and you're getting paid more than us how?
- mdonohue 12y ago
  FYI, that includes pg's thinking on the use of lisp for viaweb http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html
- coldtea 12y ago
  >FYI, that includes pg's thinking on the use of lisp for viaweb Yeah, I for one think this was equally flawed. People have made succesful and quickly iteratable web services/apps in all kinds of languages, including Perl and PHP. Plus, one single data source like pg had is never that accurate, plus the fact he and Martin were already Lisp guru s helped them in their use of it.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  Well, they're right pretty much by definition - otherwise it wouldn't matter at all what technology you use. You could code your CRUDs in Brainfuck connected to MongoDB. In real world, you gain consumer advantage by e.g. chosing right database for the problem, or playing to language's strengths (which is what pg done at Viaweb).
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- conradfr 12y ago
  So true, while neglecting UI and usability. I guess developers hate that for people UI is your product. Spend months rewriting the most beautiful backend and nobody care, redesign a button and everyone is excited.

sudowhodoido 12y ago

I must have spent my entire time between 2004-2008 working for companies that did that sort of thing (rewrite to .Net). Plenty of cash to burn with no real possibility of success and no business plan. In two cases, the guys running it knew it was going to fail from day one and their business model was to do this in two year chunks, syphon the cash out of the VCs after talking the product up, live the high life and disappear for a bit. I felt no shame working for them back then but I do now.

seanmcdirmid 12y ago

To be fair, you can build a decent social site out of .net; e.g. Stack Overflow does quite well. But its not a main factor.

Cthulhu_ 12y ago
To be fair you can build a decent anything out of any language / framework / environment; the point is, technology doesn't matter that much if your product is good. Look at Twitter or something for example, they built a product in a language they were comfortable with, and evolved from there.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  I totally agree with that.

smanuel 12y ago

He was obviously obsessed by .net and circles. But what do you mean by "circles around Reddit" or "circles around something"? Like... g+ circles?

no_gravity 12y ago
It's a figure of speech. See how people use it: http://news.gnod.com/search?f=run+circles+around http://news.gnod.com/search?f=run+circles+around
- smanuel 12y ago
  Thanks! It would be interesting to know what made this guy think that "elegant design" and using .net is the way to run circles around Reddit but...

eksith 12y ago

Honestly the premise, the model and database matter a whole lot more than the language. The premise is the most important as how it's presented to everyone is determined by it. The model is only to help you get your head around it; users don't (and shouldn't have to) care what you do in the backend. The database will dictate what you choose to store and how often. Even rubbish code, in any language, can survive for a lot longer by shifting the spotlight of scrutiny to the biggest bottleneck, the database. Which will also be the deciding factor in reducing growing pains.

jammy47 12y ago

User first, then technology