[lelanthran]

> But sometimes it IS better to think a few steps ahead, rather than building a new system from scratch every time things scale up.

The problem is knowing when to do it and when not to do it.

If you're even the slightest bit unsure, err on the side of not thinking a few steps ahead because it is highly unlikely that you can see what complexities and hurdles lie in the future.

In short, it's easier to unfuck an under engineered system than an over engineered one.

[sevensor]

The best way to think a few steps ahead is to make as much of your solution disposable as possible. I optimize for ease of replacement over performance or scalability. This means that my operating assumption is that everything I’m doing is a mistake, so it’s best to work from a position of being able to throw it out and start over. The result is that I spend a lot of time thinking about where the seams are and making them as simple as possible to cut.

[devnullbrain]

Intel followed this strategy with the mobile market to what is apparently terminal fucking.

[lelanthran]

> Intel followed this strategy with the mobile market to what is apparently terminal fucking.

And they followed the alternative with Itanium, and look how that turned out.