In reality, housing works exactly like he described, just over a longer time frame. Human housing didn't start with water and electricity and insulation. That came much later. It started as just very bare bones shelter from the elements.<p>The Great Fire of London occured in part because thatched roofs and other cheap solutions common at the time turned out unexpectedly to be a fire hazard in a dense city environment, something that hadn't really existed before. Afterwards, the UK banned thatched roofs from city limits. It's still legal to have them on farm houses in rural locations because thatched roofs aren't evil incarnate. They work fine at a small scale.<p>The developed world we have today wouldn't exist if humans had to start with modern, highly regulated housing standards. In fact, it's a hardship for some and fueling homelessness that we have largely eliminated many "lesser" forms of housing in the US.<p>In business, same thing. You may not even need the fully developed thing with all the bells and whistles. You may be in a position where the cheap, half-assed solution now is absolutely perfect and allows you to grow your business where you both can need and afford the extras.<p>I'm reminded of an article title: "I'm going to scale my foot up your butt!" Scaling problems are good problems to have. It's a sign of success. But worrying about scaling when you should be writing an MVP is putting the cart before the horse.<p>In anything, whether housing or software, the real trick is accurately determining which cheap, half-assed solutions are good steps and which are "oh, god, no!" Cheap housing that's small and bare bones isn't necessarily a problem. Cheap housing that's, say, a health hazard may not be worth it. You may be better off sleeping in a tent. There's no doubt software equivalents to those metrics.