diff --git a/content/notes/first-it-must-work/index.md b/content/notes/first-it-must-work/index.md index 5284e2c..360eb10 100644 --- a/content/notes/first-it-must-work/index.md +++ b/content/notes/first-it-must-work/index.md @@ -55,6 +55,10 @@ references: url: https://infrequently.org/2023/02/the-market-for-lemons/ date: 2024-02-26T03:15:24Z file: infrequently-org-tvobg0.txt +- title: "The time to unmaintainable is very low | daverupert.com" + url: https://daverupert.com/2024/01/time-to-unmaintainable/ + date: 2024-02-26T05:14:52Z + file: daverupert-com-v58fx7.txt --- ### Thoughts on priorities in software development @@ -81,6 +85,7 @@ references: * [Keep your stack short][11] * [Making Software Last Forever][12] * [The Market for Lemons][13] +* [The time to unmaintainable is very low][14] [3]: https://grugbrain.dev/ [4]: https://world.hey.com/dhh/even-amazon-can-t-make-sense-of-serverless-or-microservices-59625580 @@ -93,3 +98,4 @@ references: [11]: https://aaronmbushnell.com/keep-your-stack-short/ [12]: https://www.danstroot.com/posts/2023-05-25-making_software_last_forever [13]: https://infrequently.org/2023/02/the-market-for-lemons/ +[14]: https://daverupert.com/2024/01/time-to-unmaintainable/ diff --git a/static/archive/daverupert-com-v58fx7.txt b/static/archive/daverupert-com-v58fx7.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16bcd71 --- /dev/null +++ b/static/archive/daverupert-com-v58fx7.txt @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ + • [1]Home + • [2]About + • [3]Archives + • [4]Bookshelf + • [5]Projects + • [6]Stories + • [7] + +The time to unmaintainable is very low + +January 23, 2024 + +It’s so easy nowadays to get up and going on a project. I can burp some npm +commands into my terminal, burp some more to setup a deployment pipeline and +blam! Website. The time to product demo is so low. You can get far on your own… +very quickly… but then… you’re on your own. And it’s possible you’ve built +something way past your ability to maintain. + +To fix that problem or to allow you to do more business’y work, you add people +to the process. But people cost lots of money. Unless what you’re building +makes lots of money already, you probably have to raise VC. With a squad of +developers burping npm commands, now you’re moving super fast. Hopefully money +starts coming in, but the whole point of investment was so you could price the +application artificially cheap to grow a user base that you upsell later. As +the investment coffers tick down, the pressure goes up to land a new feature or +gimmick so you can get another round of investment. + +You can, of course, ride the hype cycles. This year that’s AI. Investors might +throw money at that. But now you’ve bolted on a feature from a highly volatile, +emergent, non-deterministic space into your overgrown application. You’ll +either need to hire more expensive people who know the space or divert existing +resources who were performing maintenance over to the new feature. + +Oops, AI costs more than you can charge for it. You burned through the +investment even faster and must do a round of layoffs. Now your app maintained +by 10 people has 8 people… then 5… then 2… + +Paying people to burp npm commands is expensive, could AI do that? Vercel’s [8] +v0, for example, farts out entire UIs. Great. In a day I have twelve thousand +screens built. I have more UI than some developers will code in a lifetime. But +I’m getting the itch to update it and the machine isn’t doing what I want it +to… perhaps I’ll take some VC to hire some people to clean up these robo-farts. + +And by the time you finish all that work, it’ll be right in time for a major +version update on a core dependency. Good luck out there. + +I realize I’m complaining about moving too fast but that’s not my intent. +Although, I could argue that while driving 200mph is fun and exciting, you’re +one small fuckup away from a major fuckup. My point is that a key factor of +sustainability is making sure maintainability stays on par with growth. At the +risk of sounding like a Luddite – [9]which I am – the ability to fancy +copy-paste your way into an unmaintainable situation is higher than ever and +that’s a trade-off we should think about. + +© 2024 Dave Rupert • [10]Mastodon • [11]Twitter • [12]Github + + +References: + +[1] https://daverupert.com/ +[2] https://daverupert.com/about/ +[3] https://daverupert.com/archive/ +[4] https://daverupert.com/bookshelf/ +[5] https://daverupert.com/projects/ +[6] https://daverupert.com/stories/ +[7] https://daverupert.com/atom.xml +[8] https://v0.dev/ +[9] https://amzn.to/3NA62WE +[10] https://mastodon.social/@davatron5000 +[11] http://twitter.com/davatron5000 +[12] http://github.com/davatron5000/