The fashionable way to break this cycle is to remove old things or unpopular things. But this creates all sorts of negative externalities with your users, and in my mind is the most selfish option for that choice.
There is another option: saying 'no'. Calling something "done". Doing what you set out to do and then moving on. How to do this in a way that is sustainably profitable and prevents someone else from coming along and eating your lunch for as long as possible, is something I would very much like to learn how to do.
Is there something wrong with just doing one thing well, making some money from that, and then moving on to do something else well and making some money from that too? I know it's an old-fashioned idea that something you do in tech might not continue to bring in rental income indefinitely...
> As an increasingly old computer nerd, I am holding on to what I have for dear life. Too much of my identity is wrapped around this idea that computers and tech are brain-amplification devices, and not appliances like everyone else seems to want them to be.
I feel this. I hate seeing everyone become more and more sucked into technology, but with less and less understanding.
I want to know my tech inside and out as much as possible, and be able to control it.
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As a preface to everything below this I'm not good at programming.
I've got a theory. I think that there are two main philosophies when it comes to creating $THING. One is to focus on pumping out features, and one is to focus on correctness.
Eventually, the project focusing on features will become unmaintainable, and a new project will form from the correctness project -- focused on features. This new fork/direction will continue, until it becomes to large to deal with.
And thus the cycle repeats.
I believe Linux is currently straddling the Features/Correctness line, and that BSD will be what follows up. This is obviously years/decades in the future though. I could also see something like RedoxOS catching on instead.
Edit: Spelling. Probably still missed some. Also, image -> image/video.