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Code is run more than read

olano.dev

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Re: Code is run more than read

#271

Post by oglop »

This algebra doesn’t hold and the modals used are wrong.

You can certainly build software that has a business purpose. Or not. I build useless software all the time, to learn. So the modal matters. I can build useless software. I can build useful software. Whether I should or shouldn’t is up to me.

As for the rest, it’s a shakeup algebra. His inequalities don’t make sense in an academic environment for instance. But maybe that academic software then becomes open source and suddenly it’s huge! But at no point were he biz inequalities used.

It’s a piece written from the environment of what looks to be private industry so maybe those algebras hold up better there.

Also, the whole ops inequality made me laugh. If only this were true.

Re: Code is run more than read

#272

Post by hoosieree »

nly wrote: post #82
jcul wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, can't believe I've never realised this. How counterintuitive. The 1/3 * 3 argument, I found the most intuitive.

Another intuition: All the decimals that recur are fractions with a denominator of 9. E.g. 0.1111.... is 1/9 0.7777.... is 7/9 It therefore stands to reason that 0.99999.... is 9/9, which is 1

That's a good one! Might replace my current favorite which is:

Let x = 0.99...

Then 10*x = 9.99...

And if we subtract x from both sides, we get:

10x - x = 9.99... - x

And since we already defined x=0.99... when we subtract it from 9.99..., we get

9x = 9

So we can finally divide both sides by 9:

x = 1

Re: Code is run more than read

#273

Post by harunurhan »

t43562 wrote: post #147

Some users are not using a system because they like it but because their company bought it. In those situations biz > user by definition and the developers end up having to cater to the needs of the middle managment of their customers rather than the needs of the actual users. The price of not doing this is failing to win the contract. Users then get locked in to whatever crap you have time to provide for them while…

I guess "online retailer" example could be extended to many of the companies that are creating consumer products.

Re: Code is run more than read

#274

Post by lamontcg »

rob74 wrote: post #33

TIL of ≹, which "articulates a relationship where neither of the two compared entities is greater or lesser than the other, yet they aren't necessarily equal either. This nuanced distinction is essential in areas where there are different ways to compare entities that aren't strictly numerical." ( https://www.mathematics-monster.com/symbols/Neither-Greater-... )

That suggests to me that you've got a multi objective optimization problem with conflicting objectives and a pareto optimal solution that balances the tradeoffs between the two objectives. If you swing it too far one way you've got a '>' and need to swing it back the other way, but go too far the other way and you've got a '<'. And they're definitely not equal since they pull in different directions.

Re: Code is run more than read

#275

Post by switchbak »

bee_rider wrote: post #221

Businesses don’t really exist, they are an imaginary construct that we’ve come up with to help organize resources, ultimately in the interests of working together. Business isn’t more important than anything. There are multiple users, sometimes with competing interests; you can’t be everywhere and everything, so you have to prioritize. Going after more profitable users or users that align with some long-term strategy…

Businesses don’t really exist? That's like saying feelings don't exist: they're just constructs that we come up with to explain our reactions to situations. I suppose that's true to a degree, but something doesn't need to be made of atoms to be "real".

Businesses exist in as much as they are the primary determinant of most people's lives. They shape our cities, our media, laws, politics, foreign policy and have a huge impact in just about everything else that matters. Real or not, it has _real_ impacts all around us.

Outside of OSS, I think it's pretty clear that the entity that's footing the bill gets to make the call on how things get made. Even if that's: bad for said entity, bad for the user, bad for the public generally, the environment, etc. (of course, there's industry and governmental regulations, but by and large the company calls the shots).

Re: Code is run more than read

#276

Post by smokel »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #248
t43562 wrote: post #147

Some users are not using a system because they like it but because their company bought it. In those situations biz > user by definition and the developers end up having to cater to the needs of the middle managment of their customers rather than the needs of the actual users. The price of not doing this is failing to win the contract. Users then get locked in to whatever crap you have time to provide for them while…

This is a very narrow minded take. Every big software success story - Gmail, Slack, Dropbox, Zoom… - was business-to-consumer explicitly or in disguise. Then again, I’m not saying much that vendors screw up pricing when they choose a price other than “$0,” which is an essential part of B2B-disguised-as-B2C software. Easy for me to say. Anyway, the boomers you are talking about are retiring out of the workforce, and i…

Most software is not written for such large audiences. Typical enterprise software is used by tens to hundreds of people. There is simply no budget to create user interfaces at TikTok standards.

Re: Code is run more than read

#277

Post by ska »

doctorpangloss wrote: post #248
t43562 wrote: post #147

Some users are not using a system because they like it but because their company bought it. In those situations biz > user by definition and the developers end up having to cater to the needs of the middle managment of their customers rather than the needs of the actual users. The price of not doing this is failing to win the contract. Users then get locked in to whatever crap you have time to provide for them while…

This is a very narrow minded take. Every big software success story - Gmail, Slack, Dropbox, Zoom… - was business-to-consumer explicitly or in disguise. Then again, I’m not saying much that vendors screw up pricing when they choose a price other than “$0,” which is an essential part of B2B-disguised-as-B2C software. Easy for me to say. Anyway, the boomers you are talking about are retiring out of the workforce, and i…

> Every big software success story - Gmail, Slack, Dropbox, Zoom…

Your uses of "every" and "big" here seem idiosyncratic.

Re: Code is run more than read

#279

Post by StimpsonJHoek »

t43562 wrote: post #147

Some users are not using a system because they like it but because their company bought it. In those situations biz > user by definition and the developers end up having to cater to the needs of the middle managment of their customers rather than the needs of the actual users. The price of not doing this is failing to win the contract. Users then get locked in to whatever crap you have time to provide for them while…

I've never felt more seen as a user of AEC design software.

Re: Code is run more than read

#280

Post by dkarl »

t43562 wrote: post #147

Some users are not using a system because they like it but because their company bought it. In those situations biz > user by definition and the developers end up having to cater to the needs of the middle managment of their customers rather than the needs of the actual users. The price of not doing this is failing to win the contract. Users then get locked in to whatever crap you have time to provide for them while…

I worked at a company in a market with similar purchasing dynamics, but we focused exclusively on the users. We committed to a "product-led growth strategy," which meant no salespeople. Product focused entirely on the user experience. The problem was, we weren't selling to users. We were selling to people in the users' organizations who purchased software. These people did not have the same job as the users, and they had no first-hand experience with the product.

It was a doomed approach. We needed salespeople to get inside the heads of the purchasers, learn how to explain the benefit to them, and coach the users on explaining the benefits to other people in their organization. We needed salespeople to bridge the chasm between the users and the purchasers.

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