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Comment by garry | Hacker News Reader

Software costs money — great software makes your life easier and lets you do things by clicking checkboxes instead of spending half your week in server config. Half a week of an engineer (or founder) working on a thing is on the order of thousands of dollars.

So as with all software, yes, you can roll it yourself with other things, if you assume your time is worth zero. But we all know that is not true.

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Yes, that is what I consider when I get my car washed for $10. I could do it myself, but my time is worth more. It is also why we moved from COLOs to the cloud.

When a service is 10x your entire AWS bill the metrics of "Is my time worth that?" shifts. This is like a $500 car wash. We do moderate traffic and the pricing would make it the highest cost besides labor.

I'm super curious to hear more about your workload. Will you email me (kurt at fly dot io)? I've worked on very large sites and the DB / app layer was always substantially more expensive than what we're charging. I'd really like to know if we're totally mis-estimating a common use case, or we're just confusing things with our pricing (a launch is mostly just a test for pricing). :)

When I consider a car wash, I consider the time/money having to repair all the scratches, and swirl marks, some 18 year old kid is going to put into the paint at the local Delta Sonic. A proper car wash is a science, and you're not getting it for $10. One hour out of your day for a break, and some exercise is a better option in more ways than one.

Are you maybe mixing up car wash and car detailing?

First part of car detailing is the wash, that's where ALL the damage occurs outside of daily driving.

I don't know what you consider so complicated about car washing (or even detailing) that 18 year olds can't do it.

The car detailing shop I go to, has 1 old guy who used to detail private jets, and 3 young "kids" who provide hands on labour.

This stuff may be 'a science', but as the saying goes... it ain't rocket science, just semi-skilled labour.

Have a look at your paint, I bet it's full of scratches, and swirl marks(spider webs). That's where attention to detail, not reusing clothes, or the same wash/rinse water becomes critical. Apparently it is rocket science, because the majority of paint is a mess, and I'm not letting someone getting paid minimum wage do it for me. Really has nothing to do with 18 year olds, just anyone ignorant enough. Those $10 car washes aren't even semi-skilled. They are doing their work in large volumes, no one cares as long as the dirt is washed off.

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