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Complexity | |
2020.01.04 15:44:01 CET | |
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I was navigating around the gophersphere and clicking on links to | |
read later and once of the links I created was a blog post by Niki | |
Prokopov: "Good times create weak men" [0] | |
-- EDIT -- | |
When I first posted this entry, I did have the phlog post at | |
hand to include a link. Sean point me in the right direction, so I | |
am including it now: "Net of Cards" [3] | |
-- ORIGINAL TEXT -- | |
(I'm sorry for who posted this link, I forgot to save the phlog | |
post. I even tried retracing my steps, but I could not find the po | |
with the link). | |
-- END OF EDIT -- | |
I really liked Nikita's previous post about complexity: "Software | |
Disenchantment" [1]. I enjoyed this new one as well, but what I | |
really enjoyed was Jonathan Blow's talk "Preventing the Collapse o | |
Civilization" [2]. | |
One of my favorites quote about the topic is by Ellen Ullman: | |
"We build our computer (systems) the way we build our cities: | |
over time, without a plan, on top of ruins." | |
But we can't blame the people writing the software entirely. The | |
incentives are misaligned - rewards come from short-term impact an | |
value production, even if cost is long term complexity. | |
Unfortunately I don't see this trend changing unless the whole | |
context is renewed. Maybe in a context of scarcity - scarcity of t | |
type of resources taken for granted today (processing power, | |
storage, memory, bandwidth, professionals). But do I want to live | |
such a world? Is it worth the cost? | |
[0] https://tonsky.me/blog/good-times-weak-men/ | |
[1] https://tonsky.me/blog/disenchantment/ | |
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW-SOdj4Kkk | |
[3] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2020/01/02.1 |