I endorse Taran’s comment that’s a sibling of this one. Most startups fail, even though they are generally run by smart hardworking people who have spotted something that could genuinely be better.
Let’s run with your computer software analogy. Ever worked on the insides of a large “mature” software system? It’s common for those to be full of cruft and mess and things no one quite understands and unexpected interactions, such that small changes really can cause severe damage. It’s also notorious that trying to do a wholesale rewrite of such a system is usually a bad move.
The situation there is similar to the one with startups, and indeed is sometimes literally the actual same situation. Eventually your big old crufty legacy-software system will likely get replaced by something smaller and simpler that does the job well enough and is easier for its developers to work on. (That will probably be made by a startup.) But any particular attempt to replace it, your own included, is likely to fail.
I think there’s a difference because the legacy software doesn’t develop itself the way a bureaucracy does. It’s not made up out of actors that try to get more power for themselves.
I agree with Taran’s comment as well. I possibly underestimated how likely to fail an attempt at replacing the current system is. I just think the danger of letting the situation rot is underestimated too. The world is moving on, fast. To keep the software analogy, we’re keeping the same legacy software, but demanding it be used on new use cases every year. That’s not sustainable. I’m open to third options.
I endorse Taran’s comment that’s a sibling of this one. Most startups fail, even though they are generally run by smart hardworking people who have spotted something that could genuinely be better.
Let’s run with your computer software analogy. Ever worked on the insides of a large “mature” software system? It’s common for those to be full of cruft and mess and things no one quite understands and unexpected interactions, such that small changes really can cause severe damage. It’s also notorious that trying to do a wholesale rewrite of such a system is usually a bad move.
The situation there is similar to the one with startups, and indeed is sometimes literally the actual same situation. Eventually your big old crufty legacy-software system will likely get replaced by something smaller and simpler that does the job well enough and is easier for its developers to work on. (That will probably be made by a startup.) But any particular attempt to replace it, your own included, is likely to fail.
I think there’s a difference because the legacy software doesn’t develop itself the way a bureaucracy does. It’s not made up out of actors that try to get more power for themselves.
I agree with Taran’s comment as well. I possibly underestimated how likely to fail an attempt at replacing the current system is. I just think the danger of letting the situation rot is underestimated too. The world is moving on, fast. To keep the software analogy, we’re keeping the same legacy software, but demanding it be used on new use cases every year. That’s not sustainable. I’m open to third options.