Kubernetes
An open source system for running and managing containerized applications.
- Worse user experience
- Made ops teams look powerful
- Avoided cloud lock-in
- Better user experience
- Replaced ops teams instead
Superhero feeling beat a better user experience
From Max Schoening's comparison of Kubernetes and Heroku
What was said about Kubernetes
Kubernetes beat Heroku by making ops teams superheroes, not replacing them. Kubernetes became more successful than Heroku even though its user experience was worse. It gave ops teams a tool that made them look powerful, and it avoided cloud lock-in.
Max Schoening uses this as evidence for a broader rule: products that make users feel like superheroes win. He contrasts it with AI code review tools that roast pushed code and feel bad to use, versus Claude Code and Codex, where users publish the combined work of themselves and the AI and earn bragging rights.
AI era skills: Why cultivating agency matters more than job titles | Max Schoening (Notion)
It beat Heroku despite worse UX because it made ops teams superheroes and avoided cloud lock-in.
Kubernetes beat Heroku by making ops teams superheroes, not replacing them. Kubernetes became more successful than Heroku even though its user experience was worse. It gave ops teams a tool that made them look powerful, and it avoided cloud lock-in.
Max Schoening uses this as evidence for a broader rule: products that make users feel like superheroes win. He contrasts it with AI code review tools that roast pushed code and feel bad to use, versus Claude Code and Codex, where users publish the combined work of themselves and the AI and earn bragging rights.
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