The key rotates slower than usual
You hear a big thud behind you. The big entrance door just closed, and it bumped you to make another step. Based on the lights and sounds, your roommates are all at home. So, let’s see what they are doing.
The kitchen, located first on the right, exudes a lively energy. Upon entering, you are greeted by a sweet, summery scent—fresh-cut peaches emanating their subtle aroma, creating a welcoming ambiance reminiscent of sunlight trapped in the air. With a few more steps, the delightful peach fragrance is soon overshadowed by the robust smells of fresh tomatoes and warm dough.
Angelus slices and skins peaches with fury, trained hands moving like lightning, filling his tray with slice after slice. The freezer is open near him, maybe to combat the heat from the cooker, which was all emptied this morning. He already imagines tomorrow, opening a small bag of frozen fruit to translate into a smoothie. The freezer will be thoroughly cleaned in one month, and the cycle will continue.
You can taste the difference!
Sentia is sitting on fresh pizza dough. She confidently and meticulously ensures the correct amount of homemade tomato soup, buffalo mozzarella from a local farmer’s market, and basil leaves from the back garden. The extra virgin olive oil adds flavor and humidity later in the cooking process.
I don’t understand why people pay for this at a restaurant. It’s far more affordable to make it yourself at home.
Exiting the kitchen, you eye a big stack of nicely washed and folded clothes. They are stacked on top of one another with a string outlining them, making them easy to pick and open. Two of these stacks are linked with a ribbon spelling “Nepia,” the roommate nicknamed the lazy one. Less time doing laundry means more time writing code, something a software engineer should focus on.
But it’s only 30 bucks. Give me a break!
Getting closer to the living room, you already know who is connected to the soundbar: Palinurus. Suddenly, “Watson not responding to ping” flashed on the TV, and Beethoven was no longer playing in our ears. The terminal was opened, commands were given, dashboards were checked, and everything returned to normal after some minutes. Hopefully, only a few customers noticed the downtime. He fixed it fast, having experienced this already too many times to require writing the fix. Running on his servers is worth it, and no amount of mentors suggesting AWS would change his mind. Already in the fourth year of profitability, his five-person company has only enjoyed the benefits of keeping server costs low—no need for investors to take his flexibility and independence.
Why to do that? Why limit on AWS when I can run it everywhere?
And you arrive at your desk, trying to reflect on this small encounter. Pen and paper are your allies in this adventure.
Is it that simple?
We are not adding value to this, so we should outsource it.
We are not in the business of doing that. We should not reinvent the wheel and let the companies in this domain run it for us.
The four characters above represent differing perspectives on outsourcing tasks. Previously, I viewed the choice as straightforward: if your time is precious, follow Nepia’s example and delegate or outsource as much as possible. Failing to do so seemed like an unreasonable loss. I quietly critiqued those who influenced Sentia and Angelus.
So, let me share some of my thoughts regarding outsourcing (or delegating) to a person or company. Currently, I pay for many things most people do themselves, and after making this decision several times, I can share some less-known factors and observations about the process. Sometimes, the quality is way better if an expert company with specialized tools handles the problem, thus making it cheaper for you in the long term. Sometimes, it can be more affordable to do it yourself, even if you value your time highly and the other person is doing it much faster.
