danhou

Is it just me, or is it a massive risk to have your entire infrastructure hosted by a company who is also one of your chief competitors?

I imagine they'll want to preserve the option to port Alexa to other hardware platforms.

Yeesh, just went back and re-read that. I fail at reading.

Everything made sense to me except for the part about writing tests.

If you're confident you're product will have a long lifespan then tests make perfect sense. But from what I've seen most MVP's are experiments that may or may not stand up to real users.

If you're in the latter camp, writing test code is prematurely optimizing for stability.

I can definitely empathize. A few years ago, I co-founded a startup with one of my close friends - except he had relocated to Shanghai and I in Virginia living with my parents to save on rent.

We talked or IMed every day, but it definitely wasn't the same as working with a co-located team. There's no grabbing lunch together or the occasional drinks after work. It definitely got lonely, and led to some unusual behavior.

By the end of the second week, I'd stopped getting out of my pajamas - it wasn't like I was leaving the house, so why bother?

We have a dog, who isn't allowed in the house, so I set up a desk in the garage and worked from there. I'd keep the garage door open all day, for natural light but also to let the dog run around.

I distinctly remember one afternoon, where I'm cranking away in my garage/office. Some neighborhood kids were cutting through our yard to get to the local basketball court, and they definitely paused for a moment to stare at the unkempt weird hermit guy, still in his pajamas, a bathrobe, and slippers, hacking away in the garage of all places.

Good times!