I understand Jeff's point, but this post tripped my false dichotomy alarm: A. "spending three months fixing up this version in a sterile, isolated lab" OR B.

I understand Jeff's point, but this post tripped my false dichotomy alarm: A. "spending three months fixing up this version in a sterile, isolated lab" OR B. "listening to feedback from real live, honest-to-god, dedicated users of your software." You shouldn't need to 'ship' in order to get feedback from potential users. You should be engaged with them early-on, during the design and development of your product. I would revise Jeff's argument to read: "Don't develop in a vacuum. Get feedback as early on as possible. If you need to ship something in order to get that feedback, then so be it, but that's risky. "