[mzrnsh]

Okay folks! Jumping in to thank everyone for reading my story. I really didn't expect it to resonate with so many and I am so happy (and slightly terrified) that it did. Wow!

Main reason I wrote it was to keep reminding myself that resources, and especially time, are limited. As a developer, it's easy to spend all your time on your pet project and think it's free and there's no harm. I fall for that all the time. But it's never free and yes, there is actual harm. Think of all the other projects you never launched. All the moments with loved ones you never had.

Using creativity instead of all your time is just like using an elegant algorithm* instead of brute-forcing it.

Notes:

* I am a (primarily) front-end developer, don't know a single algorithm

** Thanks @jeremylevy for sharing my story here, I would never dare to

[cortesoft]

Your story was interesting, but I think this statement needs some qualifiers:

> It’s not about making friends with the right people

It clearly WAS about that, because having friends in the restaurant industry is what allowed your friend to succeed. If he had no restaurant connections, he could have never signed up any customers.

[noisy_boy]

And if he didn't have a developer friend who was willing to help, the launch would have taken months.

[mzrnsh]

A few people have objected this line:

> [The lesson is] not about making friends with the right people

As making friends with the restaurant owners and the delivery guys was absolutely the key to my friend's success. To which I 100% agree. So I made it clearer:

> [The lesson is] not about making friends with a developer

The point I am trying to make is entirely different: our friendship didn't force me to write the code the way it was written. The limitations we had did. And it's possible to do it with non-friend developers as well: just limit the budget.

If a client comes to me with detailed scope of work and unlimited budget, I will make sure to build something truly amazing and earn a new house in the process. That's just how human brain works. But if they approach with a limited budget telling me to do the best I can, I might build something good enough to launch.

Now that comes with a different problem: most clients will want more after you have done your best for the budget. That doesn't necessarily mean they're bad people. Friends will do the same. Don't remember for a fact but probably my friend also asked for some more stuff, to which I would have said no. Ability to say no is absolutely crucial, be it with clients or friends. Better people than I have written on the matter so I won't bother you further with my thoughts on this.

[stjohnswarts]

Wait you can't build a reverse proxy binary tree with recursively hashed nodes and O(n log n) guaranteed in place sorting? Why do you even call yourself a developer?? Why should I trust my webform->database web app with you? On the serious side I loved the story.

[maaaaattttt]

Your story was great! I also really enjoyed the mobile version of your site (haven’t had the chance to check desktop yet). Font style and size, line height, colors all made for truly enjoyable reading experience.

Congrats on both fronts!

[mromanuk]

Yes, basically the friend had an audience

[fsckboy]

when I started reading your story, I thought you meant delivering food to restaurants. Then it said they'd be happy to do all the marketing, keep all the money, and I was like... how is your friend going to make any money? coin dropped.

So, over a weekend you and your friend decided to take on postmates, ubereats, etc.? Nice story.

I refuse to use any of the delivery services on principle, principles which they lack. If I can't call the place on the phone, I just eat someplace else.