For those few who might don’t get the reference, is about the (legendary) site zombo.com
The Zombocom Problem
41–50 of 83 posts
Re: The Zombocom Problem
#42>From the inside, it may feel like you’re spending a lot of time on theory. Product thinkers don’t like that. They want to think about the customer.
Oh, finally somebody said it, thanks to heaven! Template "product mindset" with only data-driven way and unshakeable faith in the sacred custdev turn as a curse for interesting products and caused a problem of mass creation stereotypical products an gray, dull, soulless startups with only marketing packaging. But this inside-way is a really like some lost components of the product magic.
Re: The Zombocom Problem
#43I have taken this approach with personal projects as well. In the past, I divided up the functionality into a bunch of neatly-organized classes at the beginning and then implemented each one in separate files. Big mistake. Much better is to put it all into one, ugly file until the kinks are worked out and then organize it later, at least in my opinion. It’s also much better for working in a flow state so that I don’t…
> Much better is to put it all into one, ugly file until the kinks are worked out and then organize it later
IMO this defer-until-needed approach depends a bit on having better tooling to use whenever the rework happens. Stuff like languages with statically-checkable types, good "Find Usages" IDEs, tests that exercise the overall architecture, etc.
When you can't count on those things, a constant gradual approach is needed to compensate.
Re: The Zombocom Problem
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
After looking at the history of Amazon, I'm convinced their early success was due more to ruthless business practices than being an especially good book store.
Ruthless business practice? Maybe too, but very good customer support from my point as a customer, e.g. - a shopping cart which kept my choices forever. I remember a startup clone about 20+ years ago here in Europe, whose shopping cart automatically cleared after 24 hours. That was annoying if you wanted to look for some reviews for a book later in, before deciding to buy. - the suggestions engine "customers who boug…
Don't forget one click to pay. Remove all friction from the payment process.
Re: The Zombocom Problem
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've also noticed this. Seems rare to find successful frameworks that were actually built out as a framework from the start.
Here are two that I worked on for 10 and 5 years, respectively: https://Qbix.com/platform https://Intercoin.org/applications Maybe I was just a crazy socialist LOL Here is the why: https://intercoin.org/community.pdf https://intercoin.org/IntercoinSolutions.pdf
Given that this is the first time I’ve ever heard of either of those, I think the point stands.
Re: The Zombocom Problem
#46From the technical perspective, I see Amazon as a platform first design. They're not shy about it, they embraced it ("we so totally overengineered our infra we now can rent it!"). It's so zombocomey that you can use it to zombocomify your own shit. We should still call it "overengineering" and not "insight". It was a risk and a compromise.
First they were a bookstore. The infrastructure came later.
Re: The Zombocom Problem
#47This is more or less how I was taught to approach VC investment when I switched from being an operator to an investor.
Understand the environment (market conditions, constraints, fundamental enabling technology, economics, the macro) both now and in the future. The undeniable deep currents.
Look for companies solving a relatively specific, significant, painful problem, particularly one that is a barrier to future success/riches from the developing market it enables/supports. E.g. DWDM telecoms hardware supported the explosion of the Internet. Something you can do some diligence on to figure out the real questions around it.
Once you have a list of companies/founders, look to see if a sub-group is emerging from the gaggle. Focus on those 2-3.
Finally, ask yourself "what is the google on the moon" [1] whiteboard for this company. Meaning, how big can this be, where can this go, what (in those days) could be their 2nd, 3rd, 4th product.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2006/03/08/you_only_search_twice...
Re: The Zombocom Problem
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sandstorm's architecture is incredible, and I love it a lot. In my opinion though, it did kinda fall into this. It was an extremely secure and well thought out way to run concurrent user web apps. But none of the apps there were better than the proprietary Google suite or equivalent, and for self hosters, the need to explicitly port the app vs the simpler but less secure and less integrated 'just run a docker contain…
They chose apps that had personality. For instance, one of their flagship apps, Rocket.Chat, had a slash command for lenny face . https://docs.rocket.chat/docs/slash-command This was good, and goes against the Zombocom problem. However, as you said they didn't address self-hosting as well as they could have. I don't think it was because of other domains, but because they were envisioning people sharing them or paying…
Adding an easter egg command to your chat app is trivial. Actually making it good, stable, usable is not, especially if you prioritize easter eggs.
Re: The Zombocom Problem
#49This seems very similar to concept of Architecture Astronauts [0]. I am glad author is realizing this is bad! They state their goal is to build a system that is "pliable, re-shapable, open-ended, true to its materials as a universal machine" which is as close to zombocom as it gets. [0] https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/04/21/dont-let-architect...
It also describes the blockchain / Web3 / decentralization crowd. Sure, the technology is great, but if all you've built is a Twitter clone, why would anyone care to use it?
Re: The Zombocom Problem
#50From the technical perspective, I see Amazon as a platform first design. They're not shy about it, they embraced it ("we so totally overengineered our infra we now can rent it!"). It's so zombocomey that you can use it to zombocomify your own shit. We should still call it "overengineering" and not "insight". It was a risk and a compromise.
First they were a bookstore. The infrastructure came later.
You can design something in such a way that the most important and relevant piece of the solution comes later. The order doesn't matter.
Amazon is full of zombocominess. It's not a bad thing. The name itself is very zombo, _it can be anything_.
The book selling is a great MVP for their final goal, a huge wide ass platform. It's all over the company history (what they bought, how the grew).
You can design stuff in all kinds of weird ways. The first iPhone was a zombomachine. It had everything: it was a phone, it was an ipod, it was an internet device, it was a platform...
Platforms are awesome and if you have the resources you should totally build with one in mind.