Smaller than the org chart
What talking with early-stage teams keeps showing: a few people now ship what used to take a department, and the constraint has moved from hands to judgment.
The constraint seems to have moved from hands to judgment.
Field Notes
Things I have built, tested or thought about at close range. Written when there is something to say, not on a schedule, and each marked with how settled it is.
Constraints beat moderation
follows from Rejection should be silentA feed that cannot contain spam by construction does not need a spam policy. Moderation is a cost that grows with your users; a constraint is paid once.
Rejection should be silent
There is no rejected state to build — anywhere. Not in the data model, not in the notification system, not in the screens nobody has designed yet.
If a product has to tell someone they weren't chosen, the design has already failed. Building the absence of a state turns out to be a real constraint.