Operations
- Enterprise products get more complicated over time and consumer products get more smooth.
- Enterprise products tend to get more fractally complicated over time.
- Consumer products tend to get smoother over time.
- Enterprise customers are individually big enough to demand niche features but no individual consumer is.
- For
- The tyranny of the marginal user.
Bits and Bobs 5/19/25
- f the cost of creating apps craters, the cost of distribution will go up .
- Because there will be more competition.
- To unlock the power of infinite software will require a new distribution model.
- A new medium with different physics.
Bits and Bobs 5/19/25
Most engineers move too slowly because they treat every decision as irreversible.
I used to waste days overthinking choices I could have rolled back in minutes.
Careful did not mean professional. It just delayed progress.
Stop asking, “What if I’m wrong?”
Start asking, “Can I reverse this fast and with minimal impact?”
If yes, move forward now.
Substack
... See more1.
What parts of our system (or process) are truly “core and adopted”—and which are still experimental or unproven?
Clarifies where to enforce strict scaling, standards, and review versus where to optimize for learning and speed.
2.
Where have we drawn explicit, non-negotiable principles or “golden lines”—and do all team members know never to cross... See more
What parts of our system (or process) are truly “core and adopted”—and which are still experimental or unproven?
Clarifies where to enforce strict scaling, standards, and review versus where to optimize for learning and speed.
2.
Where have we drawn explicit, non-negotiable principles or “golden lines”—and do all team members know never to cross... See more
Perplexity AI: Ask Anything
Opportunity Cost Engineering - Why now? Where and when and how much?
The most dangerous systems aren't the ones that can fail, but those that convince you they can't.
The Certainty Trap
So, what’s the broader lesson? In practice, our risk models (implicit or otherwise) are always miscalibrated: a history of past successes is just one of multiple avenues that can lead us astray. Trying to achieve a perfect risk model is like trying to deploy software that is guaranteed to have zero bugs: it’s never going to happen. Instead, we need... See more
Nothing fails like a history of success
We better get damned good at recovery
An Elegant Puzzle , by Will Larson, on the community book club.
It is the best book I ever read about engineering management, and the reason comes down to one thing: systems thinking. This is a wildly overused term, but Will gives a very precise definition for it.
Systems are combinations of stocks and flows :
It is the best book I ever read about engineering management, and the reason comes down to one thing: systems thinking. This is a wildly overused term, but Will gives a very precise definition for it.
Systems are combinations of stocks and flows :
- 🧱 Stocks — are accumulations of