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I wonder if all the people who were bashing Magic the other day for having scaling issues are getting Wired articles written about them. Or even experiencing sc

I wonder if all the people who were bashing Magic the other day for having scaling issues are getting Wired articles written about them. Or even experiencing scaling issues. A startup that is absolutely swamped with demand and unable to keep up is doing something right. But you wouldn't think it with all the mean-spirited comments people were tossing around in the other thread. This is the sort of thing HN should be celebrating as a community, not deriding. Sour grapes, much?

randallsquared 12y ago
One could argue that this article was about those people, or at least about how right they were. :)
minimaxir 12y ago
Celebration can be just as unhelpful, if not even more (e.g. echo chamber effect of positive reinforcement). Ignoring legitimate faults in with a product/startup with a "they tried" excuse is the last thing a startup should do. The MVP culture for startups is not a one-size-fits-all idiom.
pitt1980 12y ago
questions about scaling seem entirely on topic and fair there is a middle ground between celebrating and deriding, which is where I think most people hope discussions of new startups wind up
wpietri 12y ago
They are (possibly) doing something right, and they certainly have gotten lucky, so yay for them. But this isn't 1994. Launching a service now without thinking about scaling is an amateur move. It is the kind of thing that can kill a company, or at least wound it severely. At best, you are wasting a zillion first impressions in the hope that you will do well enough that they'll eventually come back for a second chance. There are plenty of well-tested approaches to prevent that from happening, and they're not particularly hard to implement. It seems pretty reasonable to me that people have put the time in to learn how to do this right are critical when it is done wrong. It reminds me of the tension between a person who has worked their ass off to get into a good school and the one who got in because he won the ovarian lottery and his family's name is on a building. Sure, we should be happy every time somebody gets a good education, but I think it's asking a lot for skill never to resent luck.
- chm 12y ago
  > Launching a service now without thinking about scaling is an amateur move. I don't think they were shooting for the stars with Magic. It seemed a hack from day one. My impression is they didn't intend it to grow as it did.
  - wpietri 12y ago
    Sure, but so what? Not saying, "What will happen if this works?" is an amateur move. In an industry where the whole goal is wild success, it's not a good sign if you are totally unprepared for wild success. But for the sake of argument let me grant that some people in YC somehow a) thought something was so important as to take time away from their startup, and b) never even considered that it might work. Once it started working, there were a number of things they could do other than the "make a complete hash of things" strategy that Wired's experience apparently suggests they are pursuing now.
turbostyler 12y ago
What should we be celebrating? This is a joke of a company with ZERO barrier to entry. Throw up a Wordpress landing page with your phone number, and you have the exact same business in about 15 minutes.
detaro 12y ago
A company that takes money and doesn't deliver the service should not have taken the money. Whatever they've done right, they also did something very basic WRONG. A potential customer you had to turn away because you are to popular and you might contact again once you can safely deal with them is better than a customer you failed completely.
- avn2109 12y ago
  We can't very well ask them for a 0% failure rate, can we? Mistakes are going to happen, it's the nature of the world. For example, humans try really hard to build "failure proof" nuclear reactors, and those still have problems. I claim that's evidence that 0% failure is just not a reasonable goal.
notahacker 12y ago
One of the mantras repeated most often around here is that when it comes to growth Strategic Vision + Execution > Nice Idea + Connections It's not surprising that a concept which, thus far, is demonstrating the exact opposite hasn't been universally welcomed. I'm sure things will change if it ingenious logistics and commercial partnerships turn it into an Uber-esque juggernaut. At least there's a clear business model.

randallsquared 12y ago

One could argue that this article was about those people, or at least about how right they were. :)

minimaxir 12y ago

Celebration can be just as unhelpful, if not even more (e.g. echo chamber effect of positive reinforcement). Ignoring legitimate faults in with a product/startup with a "they tried" excuse is the last thing a startup should do. The MVP culture for startups is not a one-size-fits-all idiom.

pitt1980 12y ago

questions about scaling seem entirely on topic and fair there is a middle ground between celebrating and deriding, which is where I think most people hope discussions of new startups wind up

wpietri 12y ago

They are (possibly) doing something right, and they certainly have gotten lucky, so yay for them. But this isn't 1994. Launching a service now without thinking about scaling is an amateur move. It is the kind of thing that can kill a company, or at least wound it severely. At best, you are wasting a zillion first impressions in the hope that you will do well enough that they'll eventually come back for a second chance. There are plenty of well-tested approaches to prevent that from happening, and they're not particularly hard to implement. It seems pretty reasonable to me that people have put the time in to learn how to do this right are critical when it is done wrong. It reminds me of the tension between a person who has worked their ass off to get into a good school and the one who got in because he won the ovarian lottery and his family's name is on a building. Sure, we should be happy every time somebody gets a good education, but I think it's asking a lot for skill never to resent luck.

chm 12y ago
> Launching a service now without thinking about scaling is an amateur move. I don't think they were shooting for the stars with Magic. It seemed a hack from day one. My impression is they didn't intend it to grow as it did.
- wpietri 12y ago
  Sure, but so what? Not saying, "What will happen if this works?" is an amateur move. In an industry where the whole goal is wild success, it's not a good sign if you are totally unprepared for wild success. But for the sake of argument let me grant that some people in YC somehow a) thought something was so important as to take time away from their startup, and b) never even considered that it might work. Once it started working, there were a number of things they could do other than the "make a complete hash of things" strategy that Wired's experience apparently suggests they are pursuing now.

turbostyler 12y ago

What should we be celebrating? This is a joke of a company with ZERO barrier to entry. Throw up a Wordpress landing page with your phone number, and you have the exact same business in about 15 minutes.

detaro 12y ago

A company that takes money and doesn't deliver the service should not have taken the money. Whatever they've done right, they also did something very basic WRONG. A potential customer you had to turn away because you are to popular and you might contact again once you can safely deal with them is better than a customer you failed completely.

avn2109 12y ago
We can't very well ask them for a 0% failure rate, can we? Mistakes are going to happen, it's the nature of the world. For example, humans try really hard to build "failure proof" nuclear reactors, and those still have problems. I claim that's evidence that 0% failure is just not a reasonable goal.

notahacker 12y ago

One of the mantras repeated most often around here is that when it comes to growth Strategic Vision + Execution > Nice Idea + Connections It's not surprising that a concept which, thus far, is demonstrating the exact opposite hasn't been universally welcomed. I'm sure things will change if it ingenious logistics and commercial partnerships turn it into an Uber-esque juggernaut. At least there's a clear business model.