> And they often have highly profitable businesses just because competing is dreadfully hard and complex, so they can afford for their software that makes the b

> And they often have highly profitable businesses just because competing is dreadfully hard and complex, so they can afford for their software that makes the business work to be sucky and slow. Prototypical example: health care insurance claim management systems. You cannot begin to imagine how hard it is to rip one of those out and replace it. But the broader lesson, in keeping with the article's balance, is that enterprise tends to calcify and optimize existing processes. This is excellent, if say, you need to scale a process to 10x the volume without wrecking your margin. Or survive a government regulatory audit. This is terrible if your market upends and you need to make sweeping changes to stay relevant. (viz Kmart and Sear's slow immolation) Sucky, slow software is serving a purpose. It just usually isn't the most important purpose in a rapidly mutating world.