I see the point you're making and I don't think it goes against what I've said. I've never said that you should only pick things you're familiar with: case in point with using React/React Native at the time. This decision was based on what it could help us do rather than what we're familiar with. But it's surely dangerous to try to innovate in all aspects of your codebase and infrastructure. Don't focus on the choice of REST, but rather look at all the decisions we had to make at the time.
However, if you "don't trust yourself to have the discipline to avoid shortcuts in your code", do you really do your best?
That's risk assessment 101. In every org I've been (ranging from small startup to post-IPO) the consensus is that you should provide safeguards, no matter how experienced people are, and especially as you grow. I feel like you're taking my point as an attack on competencies — it is not. People get tired, bored, or have to work under pressure at times. Good risk management takes that into account. In our case, we're currently a team of 2 having to juggle multiple hats (devs, marketing, ops...) and the less I have to think about how to build things, the better. Once again it's contextual and YMMV.
TL;DR; I don't think we're in so much disagreement.
Coding for 20 years | Working for startups for 10 years | Team leader and mentor | More information about me: https://thevaluable.dev/page/about/
Twitter: @Cneude_Matthieu
I see the point you're making and I don't think it goes against what I've said. I've never said that you should only pick things you're familiar with: case in point with using React/React Native at the time. This decision was based on what it could help us do rather than what we're familiar with. But it's surely dangerous to try to innovate in all aspects of your codebase and infrastructure. Don't focus on the choice of REST, but rather look at all the decisions we had to make at the time.
That's risk assessment 101. In every org I've been (ranging from small startup to post-IPO) the consensus is that you should provide safeguards, no matter how experienced people are, and especially as you grow. I feel like you're taking my point as an attack on competencies — it is not. People get tired, bored, or have to work under pressure at times. Good risk management takes that into account. In our case, we're currently a team of 2 having to juggle multiple hats (devs, marketing, ops...) and the less I have to think about how to build things, the better. Once again it's contextual and YMMV.
TL;DR; I don't think we're in so much disagreement.
I agree. At the end it's more the way you say it which bothered me, more than what you meant by it.