We need more companies doing fewer things, fewer features, and requiring fewer employees. Building high-quality software is fun when you have focus and a tight team.

The current scale of most teams and the absurd financial goals make a large portion of this industry unbearable.

Redistributing the workforce among a broader spectrum of companies will generate more competition and ownership. The ultimate beneficiaries? End-users who enjoy better products and solutions.

The scale pushes us to generate intermediate layers of tech, processes, middle management, and other fat, distracting us from creating better products.

Simply downsizing and flattening organizations isn’t the answer. Companies need to reduce commitments and laser-focus on genuine value delivery.

Most of these problems have been auto-infringed. It’s puzzling to see hyper-growth startups sprinting into the scale issue as soon as they raise some money. Rather than benefiting from focus and competitive advantage, they jump right into the fire with the rest of the companies.

But here’s the truth: introducing more processes and trying to generate order in a bloated, stressful system that’s overly ambitious won’t work; it will burn out most of your team.

These distractions divert our focus from crafting delightful products and building sustainable teams. Let’s recalibrate and aspire to do better.