[bobthebuilders]

The thing is anyone can build a system that can scale out to Slack's level given enough machines and money. What's harder is scaling out to that level and not burning gobs of cash.

It's similar to the whole buildings a long time ago last much longer than those today. Its true in the literal sense, but it ignores the fact that we've gotten at reducing the cost of stuff like skyscrapers and bridges.

In our pursuit of efficiency, we do things like JIT delivery, dropshipping, scaling, building to the minimum spec. Sometimes, we get it wrong and it comes tumbling down (covid, HN hug of death, earthquakes).