crashoverdrive

Bezos goal may be to force users to more digital media. Amazon has been trying to push its publications by forcing book print companies out of the market, by cornering newspapers as well, Amazon could make it self the centralized location for e-media.

Is it really that far of a stretch to consider giving astronauts video games? What else are you going to do with massive amounts of computing power and tons of time?

In my opinion it comes down to this, Do you want to play the game, or do you want to change the game.

If you want to play the game, Sure, be a jerk, be the biggest sociopathic jerk you can be, stamp your feet when your timelines get pushed back, force your subordinates to work extra hours, yell at anyone who breaks the build. It's the way the game has always been played.

Or you could change the game. Be the humble, helpful leader, be steadfast and nurturing, look at your employees as investments, because thats what they truly are, you are investing your product, your time, even your value into them, so they better damn well be worth your emotional efforts. Be the leaders that you see that are Charismatic and optimistic. But don't expect it to be easy.

For some of us, being the jerk is harder.

I'm not sure it's the sense that mobile shopping needs to be an experience, but rather marketing IS an experience, it's bombarding your senses with an attempt to make you buy something. If you're looking at your phone for products what do you care more about, bright popping pictures, or whitepapers of details?

The major issue with using RDS vs MYSQL on EC2 isn't cost, it's all the other factors. Permissions, control, logging, ability to fix it. There is a lot lacking on the RDS side when it comes to DBA functionality.

  "I'm a sysadmin by profession but when I write code I don't
   want to have to worry about backups, scaling, etc. Those
   things get in the way of creating the product."

This is how you get yourself into the type of problems OP is talking about. You can't rely on infrastructure to intelligently save you. You can't rely on SAAS options to solve your design issues. If you aren't asking questions from the beginning like:

"How will I scale my product?"

"How will it handle failures?"

"How is it going to work at scale?"

Then you're going to be dealing with complex troubleshooting issues in a fragile infrastructure.

Don't try to replace the engine mid-flight.

In the words of Kenny Powers:

When my ass was 19 years old, I changed the face of professional baseball. I was handed the keys to the kingdom. Multi-million dollar deals. Endorsements. Everyone wanted a piece of my shit. Just a man with a mind for victory and an arm like a fucking canon. But sometimes when you bring the thunder, you get lost in the storm. But a true champion, face to face in his darkest hour will do whatever it takes to rise above. A man fights, fights, and fights some more. Because surrender is death, and death is for pussies. And my ass ain't no pussy. My ass is a fucking champion. — Kenny Powers