Hacker News Reader

Comment by the_bear | Hacker News Reader

These seem like good improvements, although I'm still not really clear on the benefits of using Stripe's recurring billing system rather than building your own. Given that you still have to send out your own emails and handle adjustments to the plans, it seems like basically the same amount of work either way.

I built my own recurring billing system using Stripe about 9 months ago because I need the per-seat pricing. It was incredibly easy, it gave me access to functionality that Stripe will probably never offer, and it allows me to plug in other payment providers if I ever need to.

View on HN

Anything Stripe builds is going to be orders of magnitude more battle-tested and reliable than anything I could possibly build. This is such a mission critical piece of an application, _I don't want to avoid touching it as much as possible_.

Now it will take a couple lines of code to add another unit to a customer's monthly bill instead of dozens of lines of code and an extra database table. It's not too complicated, but it's enough to make it much likelier that I'd introduce a stupid bug.

For me, that's the benefit.

Context -- I'm a young programmer and don't trust my own code as a matter of course, and I'm working in a bootstrapped-to-the-hilt startup where any ounce of effort saved is gold.

"Context -- I'm a young programmer and don't trust my own code as a matter of course, and I'm working in a bootstrapped-to-the-hilt startup where any ounce of effort saved is gold."

Seeing this on a young developers resume will get you an interview immediately with me.

This sort of concern is a mature trait to exhibit. It's also risky to exhibit when around the unskilled (It's very subtle), which makes it an even more potent indicator.

Thanks spitfire, kind and encouraging words. Most of my understanding of programming as a craft I've picked up here, probably from people who are like you (and maybe you yourself).

CTO here: I'm with Spitfire.

> I'm a young programmer and don't trust my own code as a matter of course

This attitude gets you an instant interview at any company I work for.

Thanks! I checked out your profile -- Nutrivise is doing great work. Hopefully I won't need a job anytime soon, but if I do I'll definitely talk to you guys.

And I love the resume submittal via a post request. I may have to steal that idea in the future!

I'm an old programmer and I still don't trust the code I write. This attitude is useful as it reminds you that NIH can be a serious disease and that your code should be focused on your core competencies.

I'd wish you luck with your career, but you've already shown you are making your own luck ... Kudos

Thanks smoyer, for the encouragement and also for the new acronym. I wasn't familiar with Not Invented Here syndrome, or at least the characterization of it.

I built a recurring billing system on top of Amazon FPS and it was anything but easy, especially once the credit cards started expiring.

I wrote a little about it here: http://peachshake.com/2010/06/15/saas-subscription-billing-o...

And then the move to Stripe here: http://agileleague.com/2012/07/migrating-away-from-authorize...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com