To the author, this is very simple. Yet we programmers and hackers continue to have a hell of a time with it.
The amount of code involved, the value of the solution, and the cost of change are completely different things. It's like saying "I paid too much for my haircut last week. They only cut a small amount of hair!" You're confusing things that are not related.
Let's say you had a magic wand and there was zero programming involved. It still could easily take 40 Mil to fix up a paywall -- and it might not be wasted money. There are lots of folks involved who need to sign off on the project, and changing parts of a business model isn't a trivial thing (nor should it be)
Yes, seems like way too much to me too, but that's because of my judgment on the business risks and evaluation of change involved, not because of how hard it might be to code up in a weekend. If anything, it tells the story of an organization that is not nimble and that is very unsure of how to proceed, not an organization that spends too much on software. You're reading the wrong lesson into this.
The amount of code involved, the value of the solution, and the cost of change are completely different things. It's like saying "I paid too much for my haircut last week. They only cut a small amount of hair!" You're confusing things that are not related.
Let's say you had a magic wand and there was zero programming involved. It still could easily take 40 Mil to fix up a paywall -- and it might not be wasted money. There are lots of folks involved who need to sign off on the project, and changing parts of a business model isn't a trivial thing (nor should it be)
Yes, seems like way too much to me too, but that's because of my judgment on the business risks and evaluation of change involved, not because of how hard it might be to code up in a weekend. If anything, it tells the story of an organization that is not nimble and that is very unsure of how to proceed, not an organization that spends too much on software. You're reading the wrong lesson into this.