(Because carpe diem applies just as much to software startups as it does to 17th Century metaphysical verse. In case you've forgotten "To His Coy Mistress" since Lit. class, the original's here. NQSFW, btw--who'd have guessed that the wooing of previous centuries could be anything but G-rated, I ask you...)
Had we but funds enough, and time,
Such rework, partner, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To make thy scope-change o' the day.
Design alone should then decide
Which features go, and which abide:
Conflating always "could" with "should,"
From teeming brains unleash our flood.
All options could we then peruse
As if we had all time to lose.
Our feature list we'd prune to grow
Into a flawless one-point-oh.
Our sanguine prospects we'd appraise
And rounds of VC funding raise.
We'd merely have to ship the best,
And let the trade buzz do the rest.
Our product then could pass for art
Which woos the mind--but wins the heart.
For, partner, we deserve this state,
Nor would I set a nearer date.
But at my back I always hear
Our promised ship-date drawing near;
And looming always in mind's eye
The spectre of our bankruptcy.
A ramen diet is not sound,
Nor second code-shop can we found
When lawyers and collectors vie
For our extant liquidity;
Our patents yellow'd, gath'ring dust--
Such booming prospects turned to bust!
Thy changes have both time and place,
But not whilst setting market's pace.
Before insisting that our crew
Subsist on naught but Mountain Dew,
Pray damper thy creative fires
Until we've time for what inspires.
Now let us triage while we may:
With time-to-market seize the day,
By marking progress with the hour
And prizing bud before the flower.
Let us roll all our efforts, all
Our focus, up into one ball,
And waste not time o'er pointless strife--
A beta, rather, bring to life.
And, though thy tweaks shan't make V. One,
In version 2 they'll have their run.
