diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'content/2023/on-simple-software.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | content/2023/on-simple-software.md | 6 |
1 files changed, 4 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/content/2023/on-simple-software.md b/content/2023/on-simple-software.md index bd5f330..ed678fd 100644 --- a/content/2023/on-simple-software.md +++ b/content/2023/on-simple-software.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ --- title: "On Simple Software" -category: "software" +category: engineering abstract: make software simpler! year: 2023 date: 2023-01-17T15:24:10+01:00 @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ tags: --- As I've stated before, I'm not much of a gamer. Therefore, till recently, I had yet to learn who Jonathan Blow was. In short: he is an indie game developer responsible for Braid and The Witness - games I've meant to play for a long time but have yet to do it. He is also quite prolific at the interwebs and game development conferences. But what is most important is that he is a man of strong opinions, and I always had a hard-on for people having actual, individual thoughts. A rare breed, unfortunately. -The one talk of his that made the biggest impression on me was [Preventing the Collapse of Civilization](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRHeXYDLko), primarily because if inlines with what I've been feeling recently. The video is worth the time, but to make it brief: Blow states that their knowledge is lost when civilizations fall. And then he comes to the notion that we, software developers, suck because we don't know how CPU works. It makes a lot more sense when he tells it, I promise! +The one talk of his that made the biggest impression on me was Preventing the Collapse of Civilization[^yt], primarily because if inlines with what I've been feeling recently. The video is worth the time, but to make it brief: Blow states that their knowledge is lost when civilizations fall. And then he comes to the notion that we, software developers, suck because we don't know how CPU works. It makes a lot more sense when he tells it, I promise! But it all boils down to one thing: the simplicity of software. I am a web developer. And I know one thing most of us are proud of: we make simple software in a simple manner. But are we? @@ -26,3 +26,5 @@ But there is simplicity there: the delivery of software. The browser runs most s The way I see it: we write incredibly complex systems in a highly complex way that runs on extremely complicated infrastructure. Every solution to this problem just adds another level of complexity (cough Kubernetes cough), and we fool ourselves into thinking that is the way it was always meant. The worst part: it does not serve the user, as he is getting buggy software that is boring (design trends are the same as architectural trends - everyone does the same). All in the name of the business people. Sustainability be damned, the third phase of software evolution is in full extent upon us, but it may be coming to an end. However, this is a subject for another rant. + +[^yt]: [The talk on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRHeXYDLko) |