[kodah]

> A mindset of technology being the means, not the end, is uncomfortable. But it will help you stay focused on what matters most (the product and your customers), avoid wasteful misadventures, and maximize the company’s chance of success.

I'm wary when I hear this sentiment. At the heart of very versatile companies is a definition of what makes them who they are, both in a product sense and a technical sense.

I've worked at very successful companies that wrote their own networking stacks, load balancers, cryptography, service catalogs, paging systems, etc... The stark views of fully embracing a Not Built Here mentality and the "build product and product only" are broken for me. I think executives make bets that authorizing a certain project will add to their direct and marginal gains. Direct gains being cost, performance, ease of use (UX/DX), etc... Marginal gains being the experiences that add up over time building custom things or being able to leverage the fully custom parts of your stack.

If all you care to have expertise in is the product people see you'll miss the products that make that product faster, more secure, and easier to maintain long term.