IssueRaiser

It seems to me an analogy that as a product is increasingly complex, the ultimate consumer/demander of it becomes more and more disc...

It seems to me an analogy that as a product is increasingly complex, the ultimate consumer/demander of it becomes more and more disconnected from maintenance, operations, etc. considerations and whether that system is well designed and serviceable. Cars of a past generation were able to be owner-maintained (or understood), and therefore the owner had some interest in knowing that it was easy to maintain and would buy (at least partly) on that premise. Something that was a nightmare to maintain would not be so easily bought because the owners would soon realize how hard they were to fix. Now, with a car that is so complicated, the owner is far distant from being the fixer of it until years later seeing a surprise repair bill. Even the maintainers are not even directly knowledgeable about the design and how to repair. And the information about its maintainability is a low factor on the buying considerations list. But by then you've already given the company the money and incentive to keep on building this way. And rarely (or extremely/too "laggily" does that information feed back). It seems to me enterprise software systems have this problem as well.

Posted by supernova87a on Dec 5, 2025, 9:04 AM

Tags

Related issues

Raise real-world problems, find people facing the same issue, and discuss solutions.2,000 issues0 comments

hackernews (SaaS)

It seems to me an analogy that as a product is increasingly complex, the ultimate consumer/demander of it becomes more and more disc...

supernova87aDec 5, 2025, 9:04 AM

It seems to me an analogy that as a product is increasingly complex, the ultimate consumer/demander of it becomes more and more disconnected from maintenance, operations, etc. considerations and whether that system is well designed and serviceable. Cars of a past generation were able to be owner-maintained (or understood), and therefore the owner had some interest in knowing that it was easy to maintain and would buy (at least partly) on that premise. Something that was a nightmare to maintain would not be so easily bought because the owners would soon realize how hard they were to fix. Now, with a car that is so complicated, the owner is far distant from being the fixer of it until years later seeing a surprise repair bill. Even the maintainers are not even directly knowledgeable about the design and how to repair. And the information about its maintainability is a low factor on the buying considerations list. But by then you've already given the company the money and incentive to keep on building this way. And rarely (or extremely/too "laggily" does that information feed back). It seems to me enterprise software systems have this problem as well.

Comments (0)

No comments yet. Start the discussion.

Comment on this issue