I agree that Moloch is important, but that wasn’t what I was trying to point at in this post. I was trying to point at the failure mode where it feels wrong to have available resources, because you could be spending them—very much an internal failure mode. While I see Moloch as an external failure mode, where outside forces push me towards competition
I see your distinction, but how much slack you think you have is necessarily a judgement based on how demanding your environment is. People mis-estimate that regularly, and it changes over time anyway. If it feels wrong to have available resources that you’re not using, it may be that you just need to lighten up. It also may be that you’re correctly, if not necessarily consciously, perceiving that your environment is competitive and you actually do need to buckle down (or go somewhere else). These are different problems with different solutions but similar symptoms.
I agree that Moloch is important, but that wasn’t what I was trying to point at in this post. I was trying to point at the failure mode where it feels wrong to have available resources, because you could be spending them—very much an internal failure mode. While I see Moloch as an external failure mode, where outside forces push me towards competition
I see your distinction, but how much slack you think you have is necessarily a judgement based on how demanding your environment is. People mis-estimate that regularly, and it changes over time anyway. If it feels wrong to have available resources that you’re not using, it may be that you just need to lighten up. It also may be that you’re correctly, if not necessarily consciously, perceiving that your environment is competitive and you actually do need to buckle down (or go somewhere else). These are different problems with different solutions but similar symptoms.