Title: Embracing Imperfection: The 3-Month Rule for Early-Stage Development
In the world of startups, conventional wisdom often echoes the advice from Paul Graham: “Do things that don’t scale.” However, a practical approach to implementing this advice in software development is rarely discussed. Having spent the last eight months developing my AI podcast platform, I created a unique framework that I call the “3-Month Rule,” designed to harness the concept of unscalable hacks effectively.
Understanding the 3-Month Rule
As engineers, we’re often trained to craft scalable solutions from the very beginning. This can lead us to establish complex infrastructures with microservices and distributed systems aimed at supporting theoretical user loads. But in a startup environment, this can result in wasted resources and time, since we might be optimizing for problems that haven’t yet arisen.
My 3-Month Rule suggests that each unscalable solution should be given a lifespan of three months. If an idea doesn’t prove its value within that period, it’s time to move on. This approach encourages me to produce straightforward, albeit imperfect, code that yields real-world insights into user needs.
Clever Infrastructure Choices That Make Sense
Here are a few current hacks in my infrastructure that appear unorthodox but serve a purposeful role:
1. Consolidated Resources on a Single VM
Instead of sprawling across numerous servers, I host everything—database, web server, and background jobs—on one $40/month virtual machine. While this setup lacks redundancy and relies on manual backups, it’s provided invaluable insights into my actual needs. Within two months, I learned my platform’s peak demand only requires 4GB of RAM. The Kubernetes system I nearly implemented would have simply managed inactive containers.
2. Hardcoded Configurations for Simplicity
Rather than relying on configuration files or environment variables, my code uses hardcoded constants for key parameters. While this might seem inefficient, it allows for effortless updates and immediate tracking of changes via git history. Since I’ve only adjusted configuration values three times over three months, redeployment has only taken mere minutes compared to the hours it would have taken to develop a configuration management system.
3. Utilizing SQLite in a Multi-User Setting
Though SQLite is often frowned upon for web apps, my database, which is only 47MB, effectively supports 50 concurrent users. This decision stemmed from discovering that my access patterns were predominantly read-heavy. If I had opted for
