This is so accurate. When you make one component of a system less expensive (in terms of time or money), the complements get more valuable.
What are the complements of code?
- Distribution
- Operation
- Marketing
- User experience
- Attention
All of these are going to get more valuable. We're at the beginning of this, but I don't see those components becoming less important.
This quote also hit home: "But software is mostly a thing people use, and getting people to use things is not a building problem. It never was."
As engineers, we think that everything is a building problem. Building is fun and seems less risky. It's our natural bent. That's why the canonical advice for software startup founders is to talk to customers as much as possible.
I've been a regular on HN for nearly 10 years and never knew that "dang" was just an abbreviation of his name.
> Reddit in 2010 was ugly and confusing and had the subreddit system, which I maintain to this day is one of the worst information architecture decisions ever made for a site that size
I never thought of reddit as ugly or confusing, and it still has the subreddit system. Not sure what the author is talking about.
The comment about lobste.rs caused me to go look into them again. I really liked their about page. I hadn't realized lobsters had evolved the hn format so much.
There's lots of good ideas between the tagging, flag explanations, the moderation log, the invitation tree, the on-topic requirements, etc.
(The rest of the post is great too. I feel like the post has given a name to an important idea.)
Last time I interacted with them (admittedly years ago) they were even more allergic to self-promotion than HN. I was read the riot act one time when I posted my own blog.
This is so accurate. When you make one component of a system less expensive (in terms of time or money), the complements get more valuable.
What are the complements of code?
- Distribution
- Operation
- Marketing
- User experience
- Attention
All of these are going to get more valuable. We're at the beginning of this, but I don't see those components becoming less important.
This quote also hit home: "But software is mostly a thing people use, and getting people to use things is not a building problem. It never was."
As engineers, we think that everything is a building problem. Building is fun and seems less risky. It's our natural bent. That's why the canonical advice for software startup founders is to talk to customers as much as possible.
> Daniel Gackle (dang)
I've been a regular on HN for nearly 10 years and never knew that "dang" was just an abbreviation of his name.
> Reddit in 2010 was ugly and confusing and had the subreddit system, which I maintain to this day is one of the worst information architecture decisions ever made for a site that size
I never thought of reddit as ugly or confusing, and it still has the subreddit system. Not sure what the author is talking about.
The comment about lobste.rs caused me to go look into them again. I really liked their about page. I hadn't realized lobsters had evolved the hn format so much.
There's lots of good ideas between the tagging, flag explanations, the moderation log, the invitation tree, the on-topic requirements, etc.
(The rest of the post is great too. I feel like the post has given a name to an important idea.)
Lobste.rs is great in terms of content.
Last time I interacted with them (admittedly years ago) they were even more allergic to self-promotion than HN. I was read the riot act one time when I posted my own blog.