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The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

broadcast.listennotes.com

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Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#251

Post by eloff »

OJFord wrote: post #217
eloff wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny because microservices are explicitly targeted at solving problems for development with many teams, and lots of single team companies cargo cult them. Did they miss the first paragraph when they were reading up on what microservices are?

Who says only multiple teams need microservices, and who put them in charge of what people find helpful? If the 'app' has enough different 'bits' I'd favour a SOA no matter the team size. Somebody now wants to say that isolation doesn't necessitate distinct services; they're probably right, but the alternative is great discipline - why not make it easy? It's a form of defensive programming isn't it? - if widget facto…

There are better ways to solve that problem. Different packages, visibility modifiers, using interfaces between modules, etc. Taking a little time to iron out a disciplined process for your team is so much better than using tcp/ip as your process and all the problems that brings.

If you can't trust your team to follow a process correctly, you're fucked in a way microservices can't save you from.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#252

Post by eloff »

q3k wrote: post #81
eloff wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny because microservices are explicitly targeted at solving problems for development with many teams, and lots of single team companies cargo cult them. Did they miss the first paragraph when they were reading up on what microservices are?

They also solve some other problems: - different SLA and scaling requirements per component/endpoint - different security domains per component/endpoint - different rollout strategies/policies per component/endpoint (no need to restart your long-lived client TCP sessions in parallel to rolling out a business logic fix) - ... I've been happily developing and deploying microservices for small customers, in teams of 1 t…

Everything depends on context, but I don't think microservices are the best solution. I think in nearly every case there is an easier way to address those problems.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#253

Post by stevewodil »

wenbin wrote: post #18
cagenut wrote: post #9

key missing info though: does it make money? I checked the site and it looks like a mix of ads (that are blocked of course) and a patreon with 5 supporters.

I'm wenbin, the author of this blog post & I built Listen Notes. Thanks for bringing up this question :) Yes, Listen Notes is making some money - not a lot, but enough to cover all the cost and bring in a bit profit as of today. The basic idea is that Listen Notes should be free to 99% of users, while making some money from 1% of super users. We run ads (obviously) on the website and we provide API: https://www.liste…

When you started working on this full time was there enough profit to pay yourself anything? How did you come to make the decision to work full time on it?

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#254

Post by fuball63 »

imetatroll wrote: post #230

These success stories always pain me a bit. I tried for some time to get my own project going based on personal interest, but it never went anywhere. I have people visit the site but retention and use is a problem. https://imetatroll.com - golang, gopherjs, bootstrap, DO, and kubernetes.

I think this looks cool, and I feel your pain on the retention/use problem as I have also made a game that requires multiple people to use to create value.

I never found a way to promote it to groups of people instead of individuals. Even in a meetups/expo setting it's hard to get critical mass and momentum.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#255

Post by kaeland »

W-Stool wrote: post #114
jcroll wrote: post #82

I ran a small company like this quite successfully earlier in my career. If you think this is awesome what goes unmentioned is how lonely it can get. Also, any issues you have (business or technology) you bear the brunt of alone. A coworking space doesn't really help either imo, if you like working with others you will miss having coworkers. Just something I think worth mentioning if you think this is something you m…

Years ago Joel Spolsky on his site "Joel on Software" had a "Business of Software" forum where a lot of very small ISVs hung out and discussed items of mutual interest. Anyone know where those kinds of folks hang out now to discuss things?

https://www.indiehackers.com/

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#257

Post by hacker-gene »

Well, on frontend he uses React/Redux/Webpack, which is more of trendy, latest/greatest. If he used Django templates + jQuery, that would have been staid/boring tech. Great post though, aspirational for those of us who wish to found their own startup one day.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#258

Post by buboard »

wenbin wrote: post #117
jcroll wrote: post #82

I ran a small company like this quite successfully earlier in my career. If you think this is awesome what goes unmentioned is how lonely it can get. Also, any issues you have (business or technology) you bear the brunt of alone. A coworking space doesn't really help either imo, if you like working with others you will miss having coworkers. Just something I think worth mentioning if you think this is something you m…

(author of this blog post here) The hardest part of building this business is to keep motivated for a relatively long period of time. I'm still early in this startup journey. This is only the 2nd year of me working full-time on Listen Notes. I think it would be helpful to surround yourself with like-minded people (online or offline) -- we are social animals. Indie Hackers is pretty good: https://www.indiehackers.com/…

do you need to live in SF?

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#259

Post by vidarh »

ravedave5 wrote: post #183
wenbin wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(author of this blog post here) The hardest part of building this business is to keep motivated for a relatively long period of time. I'm still early in this startup journey. This is only the 2nd year of me working full-time on Listen Notes. I think it would be helpful to surround yourself with like-minded people (online or offline) -- we are social animals. Indie Hackers is pretty good: https://www.indiehackers.com/…

Why did you choose to have ec2s with postgres rather than using RDS? I've found it saves me a ton of time dealing with upgrades worrying about backups etc to have RDS handle it.

I love RDS, but having maintained complicated Postgres setups before (at my previous employer we had a few dozen Postgres servers for different big clients, all set up with replication to different geographical locations etc. as well as automated log shipping and backups going to a "homegrown" blob store), it's not that much effort.

What you gain is the flexibility to control e.g. which extensions you want to run, and exactly how you want to set it up. How important that is really depends on what you want to do.

Re: The boring technology behind a one-person Internet company (2018)

#260

Post by phy6 »

phalangion wrote: post #229

I'd love to know how you're running Django and React together. I've been trying to figure out how to make that combo work in a mono-repo, and I'm definitely missing something. Any advice?

I just watched 8 hours of Django videos yesterday, and 4 hours of that was a Django + React tutorial. It covers in great detail the CRU from a CRUD, but you'll need additional videos to cover deployment on elastic beanstalk or ec2+elb, etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHhQRHE8IR8
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