First, it was Craigslist, next it's Zapier

Re:First, it was Craigslist, next it's Zapier by dvt on Saturday May 09, 2020 @04:53PM (#23128219)

I think the issue is that techy/engineer-types are big fans of elegance. It's undeniable that services like Zapier are elegant in the sense that they generalize pretty well, they can "do it all" and, in all honesty, they're not too hard to figure out. With that said, there's no true value in elegance. And while generalizing is definitely a good idea for a mathematical proof, it might be a bad idea for a product.

I have to admit that a lot of times (especially when building side-projects/toy startups), I second guess myself when it comes to these kinds of product decisions -- "Is this product too simple? Too bare-bones; too much of a one-trick-pony? Would anyone pay for this?"

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Re:First, it was Craigslist, next it's Zapier by siscia on Saturday May 09, 2020 @04:56PM (#23128246)

I believe that was separate senior engineers from the other is having passed the phase of elegance.

Eventually we want stuff that works, without looking at them.

On twitter people were asking what is clean code? My answer to that is that the cleanest code is the code you never have to open in an ide to figure or tweak.

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Re:First, it was Craigslist, next it's Zapier by eximius on Saturday May 09, 2020 @05:37PM (#23128502)

Put another way, elegant code is not always good code.

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Re:First, it was Craigslist, next it's Zapier by RonanTheGrey on Saturday May 09, 2020 @08:19PM (#23129308)

I have written some beautifully elegant code in my time.

It's code that I now hate returning to because I don't understand it at first glance. (Granted this was years ago. I don't code that way anymore and haven't for quite some time).

I've learned my lesson.

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Re:First, it was Craigslist, next it's Zapier by kamerontanseli on Saturday May 09, 2020 @04:57PM (#23128253)

This reminds me of what Don Norman quotes in "living with complexity" around how people buy the microwaves with all the buttons even though it's harder to use.

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Re:First, it was Craigslist, next it's Zapier by Scoundreller on Saturday May 09, 2020 @06:00PM (#23128634)

I would buy a 1-button microwave: enough pushes of the +30s button is all I need.

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Re:First, it was Craigslist, next it's Zapier by karatestomp on Saturday May 09, 2020 @09:27PM (#23129612)

The two-dial ones of old were the best. Set power dial (or don't touch it if it's already where you want it), turn timer dial. Microwave goes until timer dial hits zero. No "start" button, no cancel, no menus, no preset crap. Just two dials.

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Re:First, it was Craigslist, next it's Zapier by nicbou on Monday May 11, 2020 @03:36AM (#23139741)

I bought mine 5 years ago and it's just like that. I realised that I don't even need a time dial. An on/off switch would be just fine.

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Re:First, it was Craigslist, next it's Zapier by jatone on Saturday May 09, 2020 @07:35PM (#23129111)

now if i could just find one without the fucking clock.

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Re:First, it was Craigslist, next it's Zapier by osel on Saturday May 09, 2020 @08:29PM (#23129346)

I have one of these [1] which has two features that I like:

- Super simple buttons

- No clock if you don’t set it (it turns off after a few minutes of first power on)

[1] https://www.lg.com/nz/microwave-ovens/lg-MS2336DB

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