Eric, The Lean Startup had a huge influence on how I think about startups and product work, so first: thank you.
Given the current wave of AI-assisted coding (Claude Code/Codex) and the broader enshittification of SaaS/platforms, do you think B2B SaaS founders now face a new "we can just build this ourselves" problem?
How would you think about testing for that risk early?
Over the years I’ve tried plenty of fast, "snappy" code editors, but always found myself returning to Sublime.
Zed is the first one that got me to actually migrate. It does a great job of staying out of your way. Search and replace works seamlessly across multiple files with regex, and the extremely fast editing experience feels immediately familiar if you’re coming from Sublime. Being open source also gives confidence in its long-term viability.
Funny, this mirrors almost exactly a decision I made after about a year of struggling with ELPA packages breaking on me repeatedly.
I ended up cutting Emacs off from ELPA entirely, settled on a ~700-line init.el, and now use Emacs as a glorified Org-mode agenda keeper. It's been heavenly (especially with a dedicated monitor).
The one thing I'm still working out is syncing with calendars and email.
I can imagine a camera-based input that would help detect the wagging of a tail, or continued interest in the visuals as an indicator of doubling-down on a given feature.
The dog could actually vibe code a game to their liking, but with the wrong input (a keyboard) it's a missed opportunity.
HN has been a wonderful source of both news and community - it connected me to my industry in ways that could only have been achieved otherwise by moving to SF or NYC.
In a way, it feels like a great continuation of my Slashdot years.
I get pulled into a fair number of "why did my AWS bill explode?" situations, and this exact pattern (NAT + S3 + "I thought same-region EC2→S3 was free") comes up more often than you’d expect.
The mental model that seems to stick is: S3 transfer pricing and "how you reach S3" pricing are two different things. You can be right that EC2→S3 is free and still pay a lot because all your traffic goes through a NAT Gateway.
The small checklist I give people:
1. If a private subnet talks a lot to S3 or DynamoDB, start by assuming you want a Gateway Endpoint, not the NAT, unless you have a strong security requirement that says otherwise.
2. Put NAT on its own Cost Explorer view / dashboard. If that line moves in a way you didn’t expect, treat it as a bug and go find the job or service that changed.
3. Before you turn on a new sync or batch job that moves a lot of data, sketch (I tend to do this with Mermaid) "from where to where, through what, and who charges me for each leg?" It takes a few minutes and usually catches this kind of trap.
Cost Anomaly Detection doing its job here is also the underrated part of the story. A $1k lesson is painful, but finding it at $20k is much worse.
Hey, just a friendly reminder that this is HackerNews, not The Lancet.
I have seen past comments here debating many relative basic concepts on medicine. Please don't take medical advice from engineers. Drink water, exercise, eat well. Otherwise seek medical advice from a doctor.
You just opened my eyes to IMSLP and I would like to thank you for that. For years I have been chasing music scores that were just the right level for my kids.
Hard to believe it's been 27 years. I remember when it was still in beta, and how exciting it was to have an open source alternative to Internet Explorer.
It is indeed a delicate balance, and different companies take it in different directions. I've seen ICs who focus almost entirely on a single pillar with minimal collaboration needed, but I've also seen Principal Engineers who were essentially part-time PMs. It really depends on what the person's strong suit is, or what gaps they naturally end up filling.
After handling so many of these cases I decided to build a solution that helps with cost monitoring and optimization. It's a single click integration with AWS and Azure.
We're currently working on a solution for these specific cases as well, would love to hear some feedback.
CloudExpat - www.cloudexpat.com
Your trajectory is quite similar to mine, particularly working with Kohana and Jekyll over the years.
My blog, in its current iteration, has also recently turned 15 (first post on June 27th, 2009). Reflecting on this long journey and how it has helped my career, I've decided to write a book about the experience.
If you'll excuse a bit of self-promotion, those interested can find out more at https://codertocto.com.
I hope sharing my journey might be helpful to others on a similar path.
Given the current wave of AI-assisted coding (Claude Code/Codex) and the broader enshittification of SaaS/platforms, do you think B2B SaaS founders now face a new "we can just build this ourselves" problem?
How would you think about testing for that risk early?