Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

As a former Microsoft employee, my experience was that the longer a product was around, the harder it was to figure out who understood any part of it well enough to change something.

I would guess I averaged about 10 lines a month on my project that had been around for decades. Making even slight tweaks required dozens of meetings, design discussions, functional and performance testing, etc. etc. It took an eternity.



Microsoft is still actively patching Skype. Here's an example of them patching what sounds like a similar DLL flaw just last year:

https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2017-6517/


And don't forget that the product work as expected in most cases and many changes are not justified.

The bike shed won't get painted to a new color just because a the new middle manager asked for it.




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2026 batch! Applications are open till July 27.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: