The collapse of complex software
nolanlawson.com
The collapse of complex software
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Re: The collapse of complex software
#2I like to believe that serverless technologies and cloud services reduce complexity for the org, but obviously that's at the cost of offloading that complexity to the cloud providers (and welding an org's software to that provider for years, if not decades).
So different, but not less complex overall. But maybe there is value in having some of that complexity consistent across a small number of cloud providers.
Re: The collapse of complex software
#3I like to believe that serverless technologies and cloud services reduce complexity for the org, but obviously that's at the cost of offloading that complexity to the cloud providers (and welding an org's software to that provider for years, if not decades). So different, but not less complex overall. But maybe there is value in having some of that complexity consistent across a small number of cloud providers.
Every time our operating costs go up (eg, cloud providers), something else in the organization gets more complicated in order to make up the shortfall. Or super simple when we go out of business.
No free lunches here.
Re: The collapse of complex software
#4I like to believe that serverless technologies and cloud services reduce complexity for the org, but obviously that's at the cost of offloading that complexity to the cloud providers (and welding an org's software to that provider for years, if not decades). So different, but not less complex overall. But maybe there is value in having some of that complexity consistent across a small number of cloud providers.
Every time our operating costs go up (eg, cloud providers), something else in the organization gets more complicated in order to make up the shortfall. Or super simple when we go out of business. No free lunches here.
That assumes operating costs go up with cloud providers. Some orgs see savings, but obviously not all.
Re: The collapse of complex software
#5It's hard to describe just how much of software engineering & it's enjoyability comes from attaining perspective, from reaching a point where you see & understand how a big pile of stuff works.
> One thing working in complexity’s favor, though, is that engineers like complexity. Admit it: as much as we complain about other people’s complexity, we love our own. We love sitting around and dreaming up new architectural diagrams that can comfortably sit inside our own heads
It's harder to acquire a sense of mastery & possession, of real understanding, when there's been multiple iterations of teams hacking on a piece of software, when it's many layered & has lost cohesion & concerted intentionality.
Trying to describe how relishable, how enjoyable it can be to explore, to search & quest for meaning, to push designs that hopefully make sense, that hopefully grow, that hopefully wrangle: it's an under-sung & hard to tell story. It's interesting to me having such a big part of the world running off of a knowledge-working that is so under-described, so hard to communicate personally about.
Re: The collapse of complex software
#6I'm waiting for the day that AWS collapses under its own weight. Heard horror stories from backend engineers working on the infrastructure/dashboard code there.
Re: The collapse of complex software
#7I like to believe that serverless technologies and cloud services reduce complexity for the org, but obviously that's at the cost of offloading that complexity to the cloud providers (and welding an org's software to that provider for years, if not decades). So different, but not less complex overall. But maybe there is value in having some of that complexity consistent across a small number of cloud providers.
Having moved services from on prem servers to EC2 to OCP to EKS, I don't think these decrease complexity.
Re: The collapse of complex software
#8I'm waiting for the day that AWS collapses under its own weight. Heard horror stories from backend engineers working on the infrastructure/dashboard code there.
Judging by the price, it already has.
Re: The collapse of complex software
#9tl;dr premise = society is complex, software is complex; complex societies collapse... therefore complex software collapses, question mark, waggling eyebrows, surely makes you think etc etc.
> ...Opinions expressed in this blog are mine *and frequently wrong*.
Emphasis added.
Equating the complexities of software with the complexities of societies (the premise of this post) is a fun and provactive blog post. Which is all this is. I was really hoping for a serious treatment that meaningfully dug into this, but that's my problem.
Re: The collapse of complex software
#10I'm waiting for the day that AWS collapses under its own weight. Heard horror stories from backend engineers working on the infrastructure/dashboard code there.
If anything were going to do it, it'd be the labor crunch that we're seeing here. Without a constant influx of fresh-faced college coal lumps to burn in the tech debt engines Amazon would have a harder time of it. They've done a good job of pivoting though, and I think they'll weather the storm here (and be better off for it). See the increased comp to boost hiring rates - especially of non college hires - and an internal acknowledgement that addressing meaningful debt or internal pain is also a potential path to promotion.
So, it'd be funny to see, but I don't think it's happening anytime soon.