This blog post really shows how overly complex their system is. I'm constantly bumping into state management rendering issues on the 'new' LinkedIn. For example, when you add a new connection, you can't immediately send them a message until you reload the page. Pretty much the number one workflow you'd expect someone using the site to do.
"Before releasing it to the public, we knew it had to be at least as fast as our existing site."
Which wasn't saying much because the original site didn't load well at all. At least it didn't have all the state management issues. It is like they take all these newfangled technologies and then struggle to implement them correctly. So sad.
Any rewrite or big change is a gamble. By setting this metric they avoid performance degradation. I'm admitting that I'm just assuming this, but the changes are probably a start for easier future optimization. Setting two big targets: make it a lot faster and make it a lot better, seems to me like a mistake.
