The nature of software

Software accumulates. Every line that you ship stays shipped until you stop shipping it. Maintenance costs compound which is maybe the best explanation of “tech debt!” Confusing the cost of maintaining software for inefficiency is a profound category error.

As companies grow and mature, many teams attempt to financialize the org, and miss the unique physics, which is why software companies sometimes collapse not from market pressure, but from their own weight. The companies that endure understand that reinvention is a matter not of money, or new technology - but of belief.

What is suprising to many people is that the work itself is not exotic. Most teams fail at the basics. The compounding advantage comes from the hardest thing of all - sharing. The same principle holds true in this new world of AI: the model is interchangeable.