Let's argue about scalability some more

So I think what happened is, this post by Jeremy on how Web 2.0 companies need to scale led to this post by Om on how right-on that is which led to this post by David on how you should just chill out.

Trying to reconcile these viewpoints I’m left with the feeling that there’s an incommensurability problem here. They’re using lots of the same words, like “scalability,” making it sound as if they’re arguing about the same thing – but I’m not so sure they are. I think they may actually agree much more than they appear to.

Jeremy’s trigger seems to have been a web app that could only handle 100 users on a dedicated server.

Om is concerned about companies that don’t have long-terms plans or goals.

David emphasizes the need for making a product that people actually care enough about to use heavily in the first place.

Those all seem pretty compatible to me. It’s not hard to imagine an agile startup that is accommodating more than 100 users on its colo box, has a plan for the future, and is primarily focused on creating a product that people love.

Jeremy Wright commented on Wed Dec 7 22:55:17 2005:

Good call, they probably all are compatible. Users and technology and business aren’t mutually exclusive.