Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse • Hacker News Board

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#51

Post by rorykoehler » Wed, May 26, 2021, 5:27 PM UTC

grumple wrote: post #4

As developers it's easy to look at these things and think "wait, that's my job". Except... it isn't. If these things can be abstracted away, made easier... that's good. That's what we strive for. You don't have to be the millionth dev to develop invoices or shopping carts. That's wasted effort imo. These things becoming available as a service frees us up to solve more interesting problems. If devs 20 years from now s…

While I understand and somewhat agree with your perspective I think the opposite can also be true. For example Stripe subscriptions. If you use them you paint yourself into a corner where you can’t innovate on that aspect of your business model. You have to take what you get but really there are many optimisations you can do you make subscriptions better or unique if you just use payment intents (or whatever preapproved cards are called) and write the subscriptions logic yourself. These will help set your business apart from the competition and provide you with more opportunities to deliver what your customers want.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#52

Post by azinman2 » Wed, May 26, 2021, 5:41 PM UTC

ggggtez wrote: post #21

>living with my lawyer and his family at their townhouse in New York City What the fuck? Who is this person? > Former Motorola exec and entrepreneur Numair Faraz Aha, so I'm reading a propaganda piece by someone with financial incentive to... convince me to invest? convince me to not invest? I don't know, because I know whatever message it is, it's not to my advantage to read it, but to his advantage.

Ya I’m pretty sure that’s a sentence in English that’s never been written before. I love how that was dropped in as if that were totally a normal thing to do with no explanation.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#53

Post by stickfigure » Wed, May 26, 2021, 5:50 PM UTC

wffurr wrote: post #20

"everyone agreed on a solution: let the cat handle it. And so, for what seemed like an eternity, the cat went to work on the mouse, slowly torturing it limb-by-limb. This went on for at least a day, probably longer." Yikes. What the hell is wrong with these people?

This is "dark humor", and probably involves a healthy amount of poetic license. I found it funny. But I also butchered, cooked, and ate a rooster last weekend.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#54

Post by Zababa » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:07 PM UTC

wffurr wrote: post #20

"everyone agreed on a solution: let the cat handle it. And so, for what seemed like an eternity, the cat went to work on the mouse, slowly torturing it limb-by-limb. This went on for at least a day, probably longer." Yikes. What the hell is wrong with these people?

I found this very weird too. If the cat found the mouse by itself, sure, there's not much you can do about it. But giving the mouse to him and watching him torture it for a day? That's honestly very weird and cruel.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#55

Post by loceng » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:14 PM UTC

astuyvenberg wrote: post #3

This is true of basically all platforms, including every major cloud provider. AWS's playbook can be described as: 1. Provide low level infra 2. Observe what customers build on it 3. Create a general solution and charge a premium for it 4. Repeat, moving higher up the stack. Not to mention Amazon.com's "Basics" playbook of finding what sells, then knocking it off, releasing their own version (and ranking it higher fo…

The issue there needs to be a mechanism, say an added/increased tax, to extract more value from the companies covering more services or industries due to the economies of scale and other advantages - and then that money funneled into smaller, new(er) entrants so there are competitors that can exist as a fallback/failsafe.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#56

Post by fudgy » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:17 PM UTC

edwinwee wrote: post #32

Edwin from Stripe here. At first, I think I agree with the title (the article itself, not so much). Stripe isn't really a platform. It's a platform of platforms. The three products linked to in the article, Invoicing, Payment Links, and Capital, were three of the most requested features from our users. So we built them. And platforms use all of them to provide these services to their users. Invoicing's smart dunning…

Hey Edwin,

Think it would be reasonable to also simply acknowledge that good small ideas might eventually become features of the platform:

>

from https://daringfireball.net/2021/05/apple_built_in_advantage

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#57

Post by stickfigure » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:19 PM UTC

azinman2 wrote: post #52

ggggtez wrote: post #21

>living with my lawyer and his family at their townhouse in New York City What the fuck? Who is this person? > Former Motorola exec and entrepreneur Numair Faraz Aha, so I'm reading a propaganda piece by someone with financial incentive to... convince me to invest? convince me to not invest? I don't know, because I know whatever message it is, it's not to my advantage to read it, but to his advantage.

Ya I’m pretty sure that’s a sentence in English that’s never been written before. I love how that was dropped in as if that were totally a normal thing to do with no explanation.

Hunter S. Thompson would like to have a word with you.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#58

Post by jessaustin » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:43 PM UTC

Zababa wrote: post #54

wffurr wrote: post #20

"everyone agreed on a solution: let the cat handle it. And so, for what seemed like an eternity, the cat went to work on the mouse, slowly torturing it limb-by-limb. This went on for at least a day, probably longer." Yikes. What the hell is wrong with these people?

I found this very weird too. If the cat found the mouse by itself, sure, there's not much you can do about it. But giving the mouse to him and watching him torture it for a day? That's honestly very weird and cruel.

Have you really never done this? This is the main reason to own cats.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#59

Post by jessaustin » Wed, May 26, 2021, 6:56 PM UTC

mgerullis wrote: post #35

Am I the only one who finds it weird that somebody is living with his lawyer and family?

Before one writes the next six-figure check to his attorney, he may realize he'll need to sell the Tribeca loft, and be prompted to inquire desperately "where will I stay when I'm in New York?" Enterprising attorneys will put their client at ease and deposit that check at their first opportunity.

Re: Stripe isn’t a platform, it’s a mouse

#60

Post by Zababa » Wed, May 26, 2021, 7:08 PM UTC

jessaustin wrote: post #58

Zababa wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found this very weird too. If the cat found the mouse by itself, sure, there's not much you can do about it. But giving the mouse to him and watching him torture it for a day? That's honestly very weird and cruel.

Have you really never done this? This is the main reason to own cats.

My cats brought me dead mice a few times, and one time I saw one playing with a mouse and didn't interrupt him. However I've never given them a live mouse to play with. I feel like letting them hunt a mouse and giving them a mouse that you've already caught and could kill quickly is very different.