> The HN community 1) likes building and hacking, and 2) has nostalgia for old technology. This makes them feel a lot of affinity toward "doing things themselves" -- server infrastructure, running desktop linux, avoiding dependencies in their code.
It's not nostalgia, it's a cynical wisdom of surviving the "move fast and break things" mentality with which so many businesses shoot themselves in the foot. The more you can do in house, the less impacted you are by externalities.
> The reality, though, is that the steady march of progress encourages us to outsource what we can to people who are better at the thing that is auxiliary to what we do.
Outsourcing isn't progress, it's a business strategy that involves shifting responsibilities to a third party. Done right, it's an effective way to build on previous work to achieve an otherwise intractable business goal. Done wrong, it devolves into a shitfest as your success lies at the mercy of some entity whose interests are not necessarily aligned with yours.
> I don't grow food because I'm bad at growing. I don't repair my car because I'm bad at auto repair.
Because those things require serious investments in time and money. But there's plenty of things you can quickly pick up that make no financial sense to outsource. You can buy your own groceries and cook your own meals. You can change your own tires when you get a flat, or change your own oil when the dashboard light comes on. Not everything that can be outsourced should be.
It's not nostalgia, it's a cynical wisdom of surviving the "move fast and break things" mentality with which so many businesses shoot themselves in the foot. The more you can do in house, the less impacted you are by externalities.
> The reality, though, is that the steady march of progress encourages us to outsource what we can to people who are better at the thing that is auxiliary to what we do.
Outsourcing isn't progress, it's a business strategy that involves shifting responsibilities to a third party. Done right, it's an effective way to build on previous work to achieve an otherwise intractable business goal. Done wrong, it devolves into a shitfest as your success lies at the mercy of some entity whose interests are not necessarily aligned with yours.
> I don't grow food because I'm bad at growing. I don't repair my car because I'm bad at auto repair.
Because those things require serious investments in time and money. But there's plenty of things you can quickly pick up that make no financial sense to outsource. You can buy your own groceries and cook your own meals. You can change your own tires when you get a flat, or change your own oil when the dashboard light comes on. Not everything that can be outsourced should be.