>> And people underestimate how well some solid, dumb solutions can scale.
I think this started with the old Apache web server. When the www got started, that server did the job so everyone used it. The problem was it didn't scale, so all kinds of cool solutions (load balancers and such) were developed and everyone building something bigger than a personal blog used that stuff. For most the root problem was that Apache had terrible performance. Nginx has solved that now, and we also have faster hardware and networks, so anything less than HN can probably be hosted on an rpi on your home network. OK, I'm exaggerating, but only a little. Bottom line is that scaling is still treated like a big fundamental problem for everyone, but it doesn't need to be.
I think this started with the old Apache web server. When the www got started, that server did the job so everyone used it. The problem was it didn't scale, so all kinds of cool solutions (load balancers and such) were developed and everyone building something bigger than a personal blog used that stuff. For most the root problem was that Apache had terrible performance. Nginx has solved that now, and we also have faster hardware and networks, so anything less than HN can probably be hosted on an rpi on your home network. OK, I'm exaggerating, but only a little. Bottom line is that scaling is still treated like a big fundamental problem for everyone, but it doesn't need to be.