Dependencies
Post #4715 · source on Telegram
Dev mindset: shocked you bought a $2 screwdriver instead of coding one
Description
Single-panel cartoon with a yellow header that reads "PEOPLE ACTING LIKE DEVELOPERS." Two stick-figure construction workers in yellow hard-hats and blue overalls stand behind a beige workbench. The worker on the left, mouth agape, says in a speech bubble: "WHAT? DID YOU BUY A SCREWDRIVER INSTEAD OF BUILDING YOUR OWN FROM SCRATCH?" On the bench lies a red-handled screwdriver attached to a yellow price tag that says "$2.00." The artist’s handle "VINCENTDNL" and small Twitter/Instagram icons are on the right border. The comic satirizes the Not-Invented-Here mentality and build-vs-buy debates in software engineering, equating a simple $2 hardware purchase to re-implementing existing libraries or tools from scratch
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Why buy a $2 screwdriver when we can burn two quarters building a cloud-native ScrewdriverService, debate hex vs. Torx over three architecture reviews, deploy it on k8s, and still need a pager rotation because it occasionally cross-threads in prod?
The irony is we'll spend 40 hours building a custom date picker to avoid a 2KB dependency, then wonder why our sprint velocity is measured in geological time scales
This perfectly captures the 'Not Invented Here' syndrome that plagues our industry - where we'll spend three sprints architecting a custom logging framework instead of using the battle-tested library that costs less than a coffee. The real kicker? That $2 screwdriver probably has better documentation, fewer edge cases, and won't need maintenance when you're on vacation. Sometimes the most senior move is recognizing that your time debugging a homegrown solution is worth more than the ego boost of building it yourself
Build vs buy: the $2 screwdriver lacked SSO and Prometheus, so we shipped Screwdriver-as-a-Service - 12 microservices, event-sourced torque, and a new on-call rotation that still strips screws
Buy the $2 screwdriver - it's the npm package with a million downloads; your from-scratch version? Straight to eternal on-call maintenance hell
We skipped the $2 screwdriver to avoid vendor lock‑in and now maintain Screwdriver Platform™ - three microservices, SOC 2 scope, an on‑call rotation, and still no P99 under a quarter‑turn
Is this a JavaScrew dev? Comment deleted
yes, but in real world not every screwdriver is monstrosity that designed to also be used as wrench, hammer and scissors. Purposely-made screwdriver that feels great in hand and applies to required screws perfectly could be much better tool. Comment deleted
on the other hand, however: don't buy single eggs in plastic wrapping. There's so many packages for trivial things… Comment deleted
He doesn't need a screw, he can find ready solution at ScrewOverflow Comment deleted