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Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

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Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#31

Post by OtomotO »

klabb3 wrote: post #26

This is a perfect example of why the problem isn’t the stack, native vs web, or programming languages. I’ve been saying this for ages when people bash JS for being slow, or the web for being bloated. Yes, you pay a bit for the sandboxing, GC, rendering, built in accessibility. But that’s a rounding error when businesses, especially large ones, go on a PM-centric feature frenzy. You get out exactly what you put in. Pe…

> This is a perfect example of why the problem isn’t...

Depends on how you frame the problem.

If you declare the problem is that although batteries became way more efficient you don't get out more hours because they are wasted, then the story is a different one.

Same when you don't have an abundance in RAM but are forced to use certain programs and applications. I have 64GB Ram these days, colleagues at clients of mine only have 16GB and they face certain challenges I don't, because of the tools forced upon them by their superiors.

These problems can be real, they can be "artificial" (there is a philosophical note to this somewhere ;)), but in the end, there is undeniable truth that launching a whole browser engine for each and every app can be and indeed is wasteful compared to alternatives.

Of course if you don't see this as a problem "ex falso quodlibet" takes precedence and it all becomes futile to discuss :)

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#32

Post by m463 »

klabb3 wrote: post #26

This is a perfect example of why the problem isn’t the stack, native vs web, or programming languages. I’ve been saying this for ages when people bash JS for being slow, or the web for being bloated. Yes, you pay a bit for the sandboxing, GC, rendering, built in accessibility. But that’s a rounding error when businesses, especially large ones, go on a PM-centric feature frenzy. You get out exactly what you put in. Pe…

> the grumpy ones

You know, grumpiness really is a thing. I wonder if it should be treated as a symptom like left arm tingling before a heart attack. A call to make some serious changes.

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#33

Post by saagarjha »

endofreach wrote: post #11
new_user_final wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what you get from so called "quality full $200k software engineer"

Who calls who like that?

Hacker News has a lot of people who swear up and down that phrases nobody has said before ever are actually standard lingo

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#34

Post by pcl »

eptcyka wrote: post #25
mavelikara wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Ubers case, the app works well when you travel. Not sure why LinkedIn would need that, if that is your question.

The last thing I want is my phone or apps on it to automatically change locale depending on the GPS location.

Google Flights does this. It’s so frustrating. It displays prices in local currency, no matter how many times you go to the menu and pick a currency.

And it always uses local calendar alignment, which is “fun”.

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#35

Post by murkt »

zogrodea wrote: post #13

I'm probably not the only person who misinterpreted "gig" in the title as "job", as in "side gig", instead of "gigabytes" as was intended. (Makes sense considering LinkedIn is about jobs, but "half a side gig" makes no sense which should have been a clue.)

You’re definitely not the only one. I expected a rambling about how some not very sane person spends half of their working hours on LinkedIn, constantly updating their profile and whatnot.

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#36

Post by usrusr »

klabb3 wrote: post #26

This is a perfect example of why the problem isn’t the stack, native vs web, or programming languages. I’ve been saying this for ages when people bash JS for being slow, or the web for being bloated. Yes, you pay a bit for the sandboxing, GC, rendering, built in accessibility. But that’s a rounding error when businesses, especially large ones, go on a PM-centric feature frenzy. You get out exactly what you put in. Pe…

It's not just PMs though: developers are forced into resume driven development by hiring practices. If they stick to the toolkit already established in the app they set themselves up for a career trajectory towards Uber driver. The risk of knowing only what was fashionable five years ago is just too big.

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#37

Post by bitwize »

computerfriend wrote: post #21
jondwillis wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s required for messaging on a mobile phone. And probably other user hostile patterns.

It's not, you can send messages on the website on mobile.

Last time I tried, I was given a "download the app to use this feature" screen.

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#39

Post by sgt »

computerfriend wrote: post #21
jondwillis wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s required for messaging on a mobile phone. And probably other user hostile patterns.

It's not, you can send messages on the website on mobile.

I have literally never logged into LinkedIn on my mobile. I stay as far away as possible. On the desktop - yes, occasionally. The messages are usually spam from recruiters.

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#40

Post by emj »

gertop wrote: post #30
YouWhy wrote: post #14

TL;DR: There're few global incentives for a LinkedIn app developer to make an overall good app, as opposed to making their PM happy. In detail: This is how death by a thousand papercuts looks like. I've had the (dubious) pleasure of observing a roughly similar BigTech app project. There are likely 100s-1000s of app developers involved in the LinkedIn app, and they are likely under immense pressure to Just Ship Alread…

> There are likely 100s-1000s of app developers involved in the LinkedIn app I don't understand why you'd need 1000 or even 100 developers to produce such app. It's a CRUD frontend for a backend that already exists. What am I missing? Are you counting the developers of all the third party libs they integrate?

Management might have been too interested in features to fix deep technical issues.

> I had conversations with that manager where I was told in literally so many words, ‘You’re too idealistic. You don’t care enough about the bottom line. You should change your values.’ And I was like, no, nope, that’s not how this is going to work, man. Uh, outside I did the politic.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39612443

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