TL;DR: The key to success is convincing developers to ignore the fact that you will eventually kill them.#
Would-be platform vendors, open or not, in order to entice a developer to learn how it works:#
Quick success. Hello World works in less than 30 minutes. Hopefully much less.#
Easy to believe that the platform vendor won't want to kill me. This is a trick, because based on my experience, they always try to kill you, eventually. #
Fun. If I can fill a need that I think users will want, without being resented too much by the platform vendor then I might take a jump knowing full well that the better the idea the quicker the vendor will kill me. #
The API works the way they think. This has been the highest hurdle for me to get over in most platforms I think about working with. I can't tell you how many times I've stared at the docs for a pltform and have no idea how it relates to the product, which I know how to use. The concepts should mirror the functionality of the system it's the API for. Too much theory and I have to be very very motivated for other reasons to get through the fog. #
Thing is if there is a platform vendor, they *can* kill you. But it must be relatively easy for you to hang out in a corner where it's too hard for them to be worth the trouble.#
The reason is platform vendors have employees working on this stuff, and they resent independent developers. This surprised me when I first encountered it. I thought we were siblings, brothers and sisters. But they idealize our situation and only see the pain in theirs. So they will enjoy killing you. It will eventually happen. That's why it's generally much better if there is no platform vendor. #
Last update: Friday January 31, 2025; 10:51 AM EST.
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