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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 Nikita
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 post
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 of
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 and
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 the
type of resources taken for granted today (processing power,
storage, memory, bandwidth, professionals). But do I want to live in
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