This is why the term “cognitive surrender” needs to start being used QUICKLY. It actually clearly defines what these fools want.

Exactly this. I'm not an expert, but I'd wager taxi companies were also pretty darn predatory.

Rideshare companies just found a way to be predatory *at scale*

Also, I remember it being branded "Rideshare" to get around regulations... like all companies looking out for their employees would do /s

I believe the argument was that the taxi companies didn't innovate fast enough, so Uber ate their lunch and put taxi drivers out of work, so as the new disruptors are coming, we can either be taxi drivers or uber...

I did not respond...

It is.

Though, a hare with continuous, obscene VC funding will often stomp out the turtle and then still not finish the race

Yup...

"Care for your employees" being a huge key.

Someone in replies mentioned Uber as a positive example of why this is good not bad... and I'm like "Dude, Uber exemplifies all the WORST habits." Terrible "gig" jobs, wage theft, product enshittification... like all of it

chromasetica - Reject the Machine (official music video) YouTube video by c h r o m a s e t i c a

13 days

Also apropos of this discussion, the auto-filled alt text for that GIF was that that animal was a polar bear...

Maybe a half-baked feature that could have used a little more time in the oven...

a polar bear standing on its hind legs with the words * scream * above it Alt: A groundhog screaming with the subtitle "*SCREAM*"

Maybe a solid idea for the world, but probably a pretty bad idea for me.

Billionaires crooning about how new efficiencies push us closer to "post-scarcity" while at the same time making sure to destroy as many safety nets as possible and means test any help that might be available...

Looking in the codebases: "What were these devs thinking?! Oh... yeah... that's not how this was built"

a cartoon of a man in a blue hat driving a vehicle Alt: Simpson's bus driver saying "Don't make me tap the sign"

Age-old advice

Definitely been there!

Typically, that's with much older code in a codebase, but yeah, it's not a good feeling.

Sometimes you test removing it and things fail that shouldn't.

Just like a load-bearing wall, the code can be removed, but it takes more effort, tools, and knowledge to do it

Evergreen GIF in tech

Not stupid questions at all. These are eternal things in my experience.

Plenty of bloat for sure, and depending on the situation, plenty of old code that no one wants to touch for fear it's "load bearing"

Oh, it's pure nostalgia for me. The first game I was ever obsessed with was X-Wing

Worked at a startup once that was "creating a category" with a new feature set (and I really believed in that feature story)... They half-implemented the idea, then when people didn't use it, blamed the idea, not the fact that they hadn't developed it far enough for ACTUAL use

I would, but I'm too busy wishing I had a great flight stick to play TIE Fighter Total Conversion and relive my misspent youth.

They're notoriously SOOOO good at listening 🤣

I remember being in a startup "incubator" years and years ago and one of the books we had to read specifically said that being first to market wasn't as important as being better or a better fit than the rest of the market...

Times have changed

But new features "make numbers go up"

so of course, we release new features... most of which are half-baked

And worked to make the experience the absolute best it can be.

Double down on UX. Double down on fixing bugs. Double down on reducing tech debt so that we can, in the future (with much input and testing), release new things with fewer bugs

"More profit" is exactly the end goal. Give me steady profit with steady growth any day, though.

Not to mention, as someone who has created many "proofs of concept" with the thought they weren't going to be production-worthy... they almost always got pushed to prod...

My experience over a 30+ year career in software engineering was that security is usually the very last consideration in design. And security is often very difficult to bolt on after development.

That's not a fast vs. slow coding issues so much as a design completeness lapse.

100% true.

Depending on your point of view, you can also say:

"Accessibility is a last consideration and is difficult to bolt on"

"UX is a last consideration and is difficult to bolt on"

and a variety of other concerns...

Planning > Coding

Completion > "just ship it"

a woman is surrounded by flames with her mouth wide open Alt: Jean Grey from the X-Men reboots yellowing as a fiery phoenix energy bursts forth from her

Hard to argue, mate!

Hades II: Original Soundtrack - Full Album YouTube video by Supergiant Games

Current soundtrack for my focus time: Hades II soundtrack.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfIu...

Definitely!

Often, yes.

More generally it's a disconnect between "management" (which can be c-suite, middle management, teachers, standards, social algorithms, personal pressure) and the person/people creating and building

A lesson my 10-year old doing Algebra is learning.

Also, the fact that if you take care and quality seriously, you'll end up moving faster... correcting mistakes takes longer than doing it right to begin with