> we have made writing software complex for complexity's sake.
I think it’s rather that complexity naturally expands to fill up the available capacity (of complexity-handling ability). That is, unless conscious and continuous effort is spent to contain and reduce complexity, it will naturally grow up to the limit where it causes too much problems to be viable anymore (like a virus killing its host and thus preventing further spread). This, in turn, means that the software industry tends to continually live on the edge of maximum complexity its members can (barely) handle.
> I think it’s rather that complexity naturally expands to fill up the available capacity (of complexity-handling ability). That is, unless conscious and continuous effort is spent to contain and reduce complexity, it will naturally grow up to the limit where it causes too much problems to be viable anymore
I disagree that this is something that "naturally" happens. A lot of this thread is about how adding complexity is either a deliberate choice made by software developers or just that the developer simply was never taught how to do it the simple way--both of which illustrate a gap in software development education. When the tutorial about How To Create a TODO App starts with "Step 1: Install Kubernetes", I'd argue we have an education problem.
I’d argue that the fact these choices are being made is natural (otherwise you’d have to explain what the “unnatural” root causes are), and preventing or counteracting them exactly requires the conscious and continuous effort mentioned.
I think it’s rather that complexity naturally expands to fill up the available capacity (of complexity-handling ability). That is, unless conscious and continuous effort is spent to contain and reduce complexity, it will naturally grow up to the limit where it causes too much problems to be viable anymore (like a virus killing its host and thus preventing further spread). This, in turn, means that the software industry tends to continually live on the edge of maximum complexity its members can (barely) handle.