A Random Thought
I recently had this thought while riding the train: Why is the world inside the screen so different from the world outside?
As the train moved, the scenery outside the window flew by. The view didn’t change much, but the people inside were all looking down at their phones, immersed in another world. Even in places like Akihabara or Shibuya, the world of software development feels much more chaotic.
Every day, new products are released, loudly claiming to solve certain “problems.” But when I look up at the world outside the screen, I realize that the streets and the people haven’t really changed.
We seem to be moving too fast.
Hustle culture is degrading the software industry. Software shouldn’t be so cheap, like disposable chopsticks. There aren’t actually that many problems in the world that need to be solved, nor is there a rush to solve them.
Imagine, in the real world, would you build a tin shed first and then rebuild it over and over until it became a skyscraper? Would you build a house with problems and then say, “Let’s find tenants first and then fix it slowly”? Of course not, because in reality, there are strict regulations, and doing so would be costly and even involve legal issues.
However, for business owners, users are just numbers. This is the mindset brought about by hustle culture and MVP - numbers first, and short-term numbers at that. As a result, unfinished half-products are constantly being released and packaged with sensational language. Because the cost is so low, it’s too cheap to care about, like disposable chopsticks.
This is the culture that has prevailed online in recent years: noisy, exaggerated, and irresponsible. “Finding a good product” has become a tiring task, or even a skill - as difficult as finding the right services and settings in AWS. MVP is an outdated concept in the modern world. Many times, I see those “failed” MVPs that are completely unattractive. They have neither innovative ideas nor opinions, and are not even finished. You haven’t verified anything from this MVP.
It’s time to slow down, really.