Dr. Hunt is CEO of aicas GmbH. He has more than 30 years of experience in software from CAD tools for wafer-scale to realtime safety-critical embedded systems.
I was thinking about "it shouldn't be easy".
I talk to a lot of founders, and there's a subset that sees SaaS as a "hustle game." You find a niche with a problem that can be solved without a sizeable technical effort—maybe even with a no-code platform—and then the real work is marketing it.
A lot of SaaS culture promotes this mindset. This is why we had to start a SaaS developer community: The SaaS communities didn't see engineering as a central concern or capability. It was all sales, marketing, and customer support.
The problem with this mindset becomes apparent the first time you try to buy a product from one of these SaaS companies. Talking to the founder with your customer hat on.
At some point, you raise a problem and ask, "Does your product solve this for me?" And the founder says, "Oh no, we can't solve this one. This is really hard. We solve these other things."
"Right, these other things are nice," you say. "But I need the hard problem solved. I know it is hard, so I'm looking for a product that solves this for me".
At this point, you can go in circles for a while, with the founder trying to convince you that you shouldn't want the hard problem solved because it will be hard to solve.
The thing is, most of the easy problems are not that valuable. If they were valuable and easy, they'd be solved already. You may get lucky with an overlooked, easy, and valuable problem. But luck is not a strategy.
The real value to customers is when you solve their hard problems. Ideally, you solve them so well that the world forgets that this used to be impossible.
@penberg The sounds like to old debate over nurture vs. nature. Both are important. Understanding the theory of computer science gives important insights into programming. Actually coding to understand the theory makes it easier to use in practice. Great software developers have both.
@energybants Not extending the same requirements on foreign produced items that are put on local suppliers and not investing effectively in advancing manufacturing at home is a bigger problem for our industrial economy.
@energybants This has nothing to do with destroying our industrial economy. However, it would have been more effective for the Climate to replace coal and gas fired plants, instead of closing nuclear plants.
@energybants The German reads as follows:
"For all that are concerned that the closing of nuclear power plant is not being replaced [by other sources of power], here is the indication [of what is happening]:"
The graph shows renewable power is more than compensating for the loss of nuclear.
@burkov Though I agree with your point, that is not why "the brightest of scientists" have a hard time writing clearly. The problem is we do not teach how to write clearly. That is why may mix up things like can vs may, allows vs enables, and may vs might. AI will not help this!
@catturd2 So, are you say it is okay to lie when applying for a loan? This is illegal not just in New York. The entire banking system rests on honest transactions. Higher risk loans earn higher returns to ensure the banking system stays healthy even if some loans default.
@Malkaiden Wow, I am glad I do not run a small company in the Netherlands! Still the point is well taken. The ill should be taken care of. In Germany, the social system takes over after 60 days. Two years is a long time for a small company to bare, but there are other ways.
@ClintEhrlich We should actually tell the Putin that any use of nuclear or chemical weapons would abrogate any reason not to help Ukraine on the ground and keep them from targeting internationally recognized Russian cities./3
@ClintEhrlich By not supporting Ukraine in getting Crimea back, we would make the written guarantees to our own friends and allies worthless and remove any leverage we may have to get anyone else to give up nuclear weapons./2
@ClintEhrlich By not supporting Ukraine in getting Crimea back, we would make the written guarantees to our own allies worthless and remove any leverage we may have to get anyone else to give up nuclear weapons.
@ClintEhrlich Ukraine is the rightful owner of Crimea. The United States and Russia sign an agreement to uphold the unity of Ukraine in return for giving up nuclear weapons. /1
@joncoopertweets It is the perfect time to arm the Belarus government in exile and the Belarus Folk against Lukashenko, who stole the last election. This is Putin's soft underbelly. It is the last thing he would expect.
@Malinowski We should at least be asking for the following as quid pro quo:
1) demilitarize Kalingrad
2) remove all troops from Belarus
3) return Crimea
4) cease supporting separatists in the Ukraine, and
5) negotiate a treaty to limit short range missals in Europe (all the way to the Urals)
@NicolleDWallace There is a deeper problem with this law: it goes against long standing legal precedence against the involvement of a third (non involved) party in a civil lawsuit. It is a step towards the destruction of the rule of law towards a vigilante state.