New blog post: "The collapse of complex software" https://nolanlawson.com/2022/06/09/the-collapse-of-complex-software/
Some thoughts on how complexity creeps in to software, and whether we can learn anything from anthropology about it.
@nolan Something to mention is that nobody creates complexity for complexity's sake (although I agree with the "we love our own complexity" part). The thing is that we have problems to solve, and most of the time the "easy solution" (ironically) is adding complexity. To actually make something simple takes more time, not less. That's why complexity tends to grow over time. Even if essential complexity does grow with the scope of a project, I'd argue most is accidental complexity.
@nolan Also, tangentially related to this, I am a very big fan of using "conceptual compression" to deal with complexity :). It's somewhat of a cheat because it does create complexity, but it's encapsulated within simple concepts which is nice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKyv-IGvgGE&t=1047s
