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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 22nd, 2023

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  • I think those doomsayers will be partially vindicated in the coming months. You can go to Best Buy’s website and order a Switch 2 with no waiting line, no delay. The supply is outpacing demand. Because I think a huge part of the 6 million sold was pent up demand for a new console and the inevitable cumulative brand effect and population increase leading to a larger early-adopter pool.

    Unless Nintendo somehow had the ability to increase supply in a way unheard of for launch consoles in the past, I think that they met that early demand, and now it’s going to slow down abruptly. Now they have to convince regular people in a bad economy to spend way more than normal for a Nintendo console, with no Mario or Zelda killer app.

    Eventually it’ll be a great selling machine, but these early numbers are misleading.








  • Yeah, this post started as a reassurance that Tailscale wouldn’t enshittify. But it turned out to just be an argument about how to avoid enshittification that boiled down to two principles:

    1. You shouldn’t make your product worse because it’ll eventually harm the company; and
    2. Founders are magic and need to never turn over control of the company to others (be it new CEOs or VC) to resist enshittification.

    Both are partially right and partially wrong.

    For #1: Yes, making your product worse eventually harms the company. No, you can’t expect CEOs to accept that as a reason to not make their product worse because even if it harms the company, short-term incentives that lead to enshittification are eventually going to become irresistible. His comment about reaching “zen” with leveled growth and profit will never stop VCs from calling in demands and favors.

    For #2: Yes, founders typically “get it” more than their VC- or failure-initiated replacements. No, that doesn’t mean founders are uniquely resistant to enshittification. This is your point too, and it’s why I don’t believe this person - they lose credibility here because they don’t acknowledge they aren’t special. Every tech bro out there thinks they’ve cracked the code to permanent tech hegemony. That exceptionalist thinking turns into enshittification, since the product-worsening or overcharging is easier to justify as temporary/necessary/not-a-big-deal (until it isn’t).

    And all of this doesn’t explain why Tailscale specifically gets immunity if the principles are true.

    So interesting post, and a lot more self-awareness than most founders which is still a little reassuring, but a lot of warning signs too.

    Edit: clarity








  • I switched to Rust Desk after I got repeatedly flagged for commercial use of Team Viewer and access disabled. I was doing nothing of the sort, but it happened after I accessed my personal computer on my personal phone while at work. They must have IP address checks that are extremely aggressive.

    I followed their process to “verify” I was non-commercial, which was invasive and insulting, and then was flagged again.

    Rust Desk works great, no problems, never using Team Viewer again.






  • I spent months tweaking a retropie image and basically learning all the Linux config file issues and arcane knowledge to adapt retropie’s outdated Emulationstation fork.

    … And then I built the next system with Batocera and wow, night and day. Save state UX and configs that work right out of the box, clean interface theme options, customization galore without needing a keyboard. I just wish Ruckage’s SNES Classic theme worked on it.