You want to sound smart next time you’re at a tech demo? Learn to ask this question, “Yes, but does it scale?” Try to arch your eyebrows just a bit, so that you look skeptical but perhaps also hopeful.
If they answer yes, and start talking in technical language way over your head, you say: “I’ll be interested in seeing that play out under real-world conditions.”
If they say, “How do you mean?”, you say: “I think you’ve just answered my question.” (Then spin on your heel and get out. No further conversation can possibly go well at this point.)
4 Comments
What does it mean exactly? Scalable?
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by manu prasad, Priyanka. Priyanka said: :D RT @manuscrypts lol and damn, I use 'does it scale' occasionally, if not the rest http://bit.ly/9aCPvd :D @ntos […]
It's the ability of a system to handle a larger amount of work or to grow. For instance, you'll sometimes see a piece of software that works well as a demo, but once you introduce more users, it chokes under the load.
Thanks for both your explanation and tip!