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by w10-1 1316 days ago
tldr:

- integration is hard

- parts don't always play nice - because that's not their job

- the better-integrated platforms (read: apple) are worse at playing nice with other parts

- open-source communities can tie things together, but any sustained effort requires some driving entity or opportunity, so they are first to fail in a downturn [ok, that's just a hypothesis]

As for how it feels: the sense of productivity/velocity is an unhelpful guide. You can end up polishing a turd, or playing infinite games, or stalling at critical point. If you instead are making something deeply valuable, the technical means are just that.

fwiw, in the complex equation of development, I pick one variable to maximize that's key for my goals, and leave the others stable/conventional -- which happens to avoid integration issues.

Why write? The devil made me do it.