Forums can be both a treasure trove of valuable insights and a dumping ground for misguided opinions. Anyone who has spent time scrolling through threads knows that comments can range from enlightening to downright uninformed. We look at two oft-repeated comments that misinterpret or oversimplify the complexities of business and audio software development: "They are all about business" and "It's easy to add this feature to software."
“They Are All About Business”
When people talk about businesses in forums, the phrase "They are all about business" gets thrown around as if it's a critique. This is especially jarring when applied to small businesses, like many in the audio industry, which might consist of just one person wearing all the hats: CEO, engineer, customer service, you name it.
Some brands are better at hiding the business imperative than others, but let’s make no mistake, for any commerical enterprise, they are selling you stuff not running an audio charity. They have to if they are to survive.
Yes, these entrepreneurs are "all about business," but it's not some faceless, soulless venture. It’s often one person's livelihood, passion, and contribution to the world. Being focused on business doesn't mean ignoring quality, customer satisfaction, or ethical practices. Instead, for small business owners, the business is often deeply personal, a balancing act of making a living while providing a service or product they genuinely believe in.
Big businesses too are often regarded with contempt, it’s easy to reduce them to their corporate brand and forget they are full of passionate developers, product designers, support teams, managers, and yes even CEOs. Some people have watched too many episodes of the Simpsons and think that everyone running an organisation is Mr Burns, they rarely are.
So, when you see the phrase "They are all about business," remember that being business-minded is often the backbone that allows these individuals or large corporations to continue doing what they love—and what you likely appreciate them for.
It's not a failing; it's a necessity.
“It’s Easy to Add This Feature to Software”
Another recurring opinion, especially in tech-oriented forums, is that "It’s easy to add this feature to software." This is usually said with an air of simplicity, as if creating software is as uncomplicated as whipping up a sandwich. Only someone with no experience of writing software code would be silly enough to say that adding a feature is easy.
Ask any independent software developer, or large one for that, and they'll tell you that even seemingly simple features can be a rabbit hole of complexity. Even if you get the coding right, there’s testing for bugs, considering how the feature interacts with existing ones, and thinking about the overall user experience. For a small operation, this could mean countless hours spent on development, stealing focus from other crucial aspects of running the business, such as customer service or marketing.
Sometimes adding a new feature can break another one, irrespective of how well the code has been written, and the older the software the harder it can be.
Adding a new feature isn't just coding; it's problem-solving, quality-checking, and often, troubleshooting once the feature is live. It requires a broad skill set, a lot of time, and significant effort.
It’s never easy or quick to change things in existing software.
In Closing
Forums are a mixed bag of wisdom and misconception. The statements "They are all about business" and "It's easy to add this feature to software" might seem innocuous but understanding the realities behind them can give us a greater appreciation of what entrepreneurs, especially those running small businesses, have to navigate daily.
Being "all about business" is not just about making money; it's about sustaining a dream, offering quality, and maintaining integrity. Likewise, adding a "simple" feature to software is rarely, if ever, simple. The next time these phrases pop up in your feed, take them not as definitive statements but as an opportunity to dig deeper into the complexities they gloss over.
Social media and forums have given us a generation of keyboard warriors, often with a lot of opinions and not a lot of experience or skill in the areas they choose to criticise. Don’t be one of them.
Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash