

Don't plug leaks when you got no boat - benehmke
http://www.humbledmba.com/dont-plug-leaks-when-youve-got-no-boat

======
hammock
TLDR version:

We were solving problems that hadn't occurred yet! And I see this all the
time. You invest emotionally in a dream and begin to believe in it as if it's
already happened. And if you let those big fictitious plans infect your
product development process, you're in a lot of trouble. Product development
is about figuring out the single most important problem that exists right now
and doing that and only that.

~~~
CodeMage
Just to be civilized, here's an explanation of why I downvoted you: I go to HN
to find interesting stuff to read and discuss. I don't like this new trend of
posting the "TLDR version" (and I have a special loathing for those who
request it). It annoys me to have people try to chew my food-for-thought for
me.

~~~
wccrawford
You do realize that his posting the TLDR doesn't prevent you from reading the
article and having your own opinion, right?

Many people do like summaries and I don't think anyone should be penalized for
providing them... Assuming they aren't too off-base.

~~~
CodeMage
I guess that what puts me off is the "TL;DR" expression itself. It passes a
judgment both on the content ("it was too long, so I didn't read it") and the
readers of the comment ("since you don't read stuff that's long, here's what
it's about").

I'm certainly not criticizing hammock's summary. As these things go, his is
pretty accurate. But the best you can say about a summary is that it doesn't
really add anything to a discussion -- that's what makes a good summary.

~~~
jerf
I'm sitting on an HN self post on this topic, which largely follows your logic
and expands it a bit more (though not too much for a self post). Haven't been
able to figure out if I should post it or not.

~~~
CodeMage
I at least would love to see it.

------
qntm
See also: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_ain%27t_gonna_need_it>

But there's a fine balance to strike here. There's a massive spectrum of
solutions to the problem of "Prevent the site from being swamped with spam and
other inappropriate comments". Just because it isn't a problem now, because
you have no users, doesn't mean it isn't going to be an _immediate_ problem as
soon as you start acquiring them. And just because there's an arbitrary upper
limit of the complexity of those solutions doesn't mean that there's no point
in addressing the problem at all right now.

"Keep V1 as your minimum viable product" is the advice. And the V1 solution
could be as simple as "have an emergency global off-switch for the commenting
system".

~~~
rbranson
Lack of any kind of arbitration mechanism can spell the death of a site like
this. There's definitely a balancing act.

------
demofield
Don't carry around an umbrella, except if you are a banker

