Kevin Systrom: Instagram | Lex Fridman Podcast #243
Why Hacker News recommends it
Pointed to for the founder's own account of Instagram's pivot, early scaling on Django with a small team, and avoiding overengineering.
What it is
Lex Fridman interviews Instagram co-founder and former CEO Kevin Systrom about building the product, its early days and its pivot story.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2021 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Recommends melenaboija · 2021-11 · on “Overengineering can kill a product”
Interesting interview of Lex Friedman to Kevin Systrom co-founder of instagram where he talks about the beginning of the platform and overengineering. [this video]
Recommends joegahona · 2022-09 · on “Ask HN: Which startups have the most interesting pivot stories?”
Thank you for sharing this -- I didn't realize this existed. Instagram is covered in your link, and you can hear about it from the founder in this really good Lex Fridman podcast: [this video] These lists always kind of remind me of popular bands that changed music over time. The most drastic "pivot" I've ever come across in a known band is Ministry, who went from a benign new-wave Depeche Mode clone in 1983 [1] to a pseudo-Cabaret Voltaire in 1986 [2], then to full-on metal by 1991 [3]. [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] [LINK]
Cites BoumTAC · 2021-12 · on “Some thoughts on microservices”
I watch the other day, the Lex Fridman podcast with Kevin Systrom, founder of Instagram. He talks about the scaling issue; they were using Django at that time and scale up to 50 millions users with a small team of developers. I do not think a majority of companies have more than 50 millions users and absolutely need to go full microservices. [this video]
Cites hnrodey · 2022-05 · on “Many popular websites see what you type before you hit submit”
In the early days, Instagram silently uploaded your photo before you actually officially posted as a way to improve the "speed" of the user experience. So go ahead and add your filters, the text for the post, etc. because then the moment you clicked Post the app presented like it happened immediately. All for the UX. Source: Kevin Systrom on Lex Fridman Podcast [this video]