> It's shockingly stable. So much so that resolving the root cause isn't considered a priority and so we've had this running for months.

I don't know why my senses tell me that this is wrong even if you can afford it

> I don't know why my senses tell me that this is wrong

The fix is also hiding other issues that show up. So it degrades over time and eventually you’re stuck trying to solve multiple problems at the same time.

^ This is the problem. Not only that, solving 10 bugs (especially those more difficult nondeterministic concurrency bugs) at the same time is hideously harder than solving 1 at a time.

As a Director of Engineering at my last startup, I had an "all hands on deck" policy as soon as any concurrency bug was spotted. You do NOT want to let those fester. They are nondeterministic, infrequent, and exponentially dangerous as more and more appear and are swept under the rug via "reset-to-known-good" mitigations.

Guys might be looking to match the fame of the SolarWinds.

> wait till smooth starts paying back and becomes fast

By that time, you will have probably left the company and someone with less care about code quality will come and undo your work.

Also, like security, it is hard to show to a manager data and graphs showing how much we are saving

Yes, very true. You can only make it work if everyone is bought in and even then it's ready to regress by someone skipping steps and getting praise from the business while other engineers are fixing their stuff.

Tell that to the customer, as a web/mobile agency, when they ask you to contractually commit to a date for the release of their web app

Or when your boss sets a goal for 0 missed deadlines and lets people go for not hitting them.

In the world of professional software development, economic value is king. This rule has marginal declining utility after some point and in some cases it is just not worth it. Think prototyping, tight deadlines, etc. In an ideal world, taking some additional time pays off, in other worlds, it doesn't and gets you in PIP. inb4 you say that's not the kind of company you want to work in, most companies are like these and not everyone can afford to apply and get a place at the 2 companies in your country where code quality is actually valued

We would be fine but rich people's investments would not grow as much or as fast

You are supposed to call it AI now. The word "machine learning" is for GOFAI 2nd gen only. Once all investors have been money drained and the next AI winter begins, then you will be allowed to call it Machine Learning

There is a different between physical toughness and having to endure verbal abuse however tiny you might think it is. At the end of the day, everyone has an emotional blindspot that they consider vital but others consider unimportant

The vendor will always be in control. Worth knowing but feels a bit of an empty statement (like water is wet)

> I am not even sure if business properly realizes all this

It definitely doesn't, as in the top directors likely don't. It is likely that they brought in some kind of consultant who sold them this solution to the higher ups against the protests of the lower managers

Do you regularly give away money just because it is a minuscule amount?

I would benefit from the app myself, primarily. And I would need to pay to host it anyway. Others may also make use of it, with no warranty, and no guarantee of me keeping the service running for any length of time.

So you are selling an app whose server could be plugged at any time and render the app unusable. How is that any better than a subscription. Imagine paying money for a phone that stops working after one day. By design. You would be furious. And rightfully so