What We Talk About When We Talk About Scale

Scale is invoked like a law of nature and functions like a value judgment. When someone says a design won’t scale, they are smuggling in a prediction about growth, a claim about which costs matter, and a quiet assertion that the future they imagine is the one we should build for. Any of those can be wrong.

The honest version of the sentence is longer and less impressive. If this grows the way I expect, along the axis I care about, the cost I am watching will grow faster than we can absorb. Say that out loud and the conversation improves immediately, because now the assumptions are on the table where someone can disagree with them.