4 ms·

I would add one word to this: > There was nothing anymore preventing web development from becoming so complicated The early web was much simpler because of th

I would add one word to this: > There was nothing anymore preventing web development from becoming so complicated The early web was much simpler because of the resource constraints of the 90s and early 2000s. Pages only started serving 10 MB of JS when browsers got to the point where they could chew through 10 MB of JS at a barely acceptable pace. Also: > Managers don't really feel like pointing out "the project I'm managing doesn't really deserve a team of developers, you should take them away from me." As a techie watching corporate politics from the sideline, this was a particularly depressing insight. I used to wonder why big companies require 50 employees to do the work that small companies need 10 employees for. I do not wonder anymore.

cercatrova 7y ago
Resources are allocated to their constraints. You spend as much money as you have, as much time as you have, you hire as many people as you can afford, and so on. It may be because people don't think on an absolute time scale but rather a relative one; if you make 1 million in revenue and you only have 3 employees, you might feel like you should hire more. What happens if you start making one billion in revenue? Read Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber if you haven't already.
- natrik 7y ago
  Also companies aim to maximize the margins. If profit is currently $800,000/year and adding 1 software developer at $120,000/year salary (+benefits, hidden costs...) can lead to $800,001 profit, the company would do it.
  - oblio 7y ago
    And that's actually rational behavior. It's also a very simple and very materialistic explanation of why humankind evolves, bit by bit. It works the same way even for discovering new medicine or any kind of technology. The new thing must be at least a bit better than the old thing. Over time those improvements compound and you end up with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPF4fBGNK0U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPF4fBGNK0U
- rixed 7y ago
  Also known as "Parkinson's law". Also the name of the little funny book where you will find the origin of "bikeshedding". More pleasant and timelesd a book than "bullshit job", IMHO.
  - euoia 7y ago
    What's the full title of the book? I searched on Amazon and there are a few titles containing "Parkinson's Law". Thanks.
    - iherbig 7y ago
      https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parkinsons-Law-Pursuit-Progress-Business/dp/0140091076 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parkinsons-Law-Pursuit-Progress-Bus...
      - rixed 7y ago
        Yes that one indeed.
Aeolun 7y ago
It’s because you can do a lot of work manually if you have 40 extra drones. If there’s only 10 of you you need to think about things and automate.
buboard 7y ago
So , is it a result of the VC funded bubble? If that's the case it will not outlast the next bubble burst maybe.
- rossdavidh 7y ago
  While I don't think the phenomenon would completely vanish without the VC funded bubble, I have to think that it has exacerbated it significantly. But, you know, I guess we'll find out sometime in the next couple years.
dreamcompiler 7y ago
In the early 2000s I worked for a company whose IT infrastructure was primarily Microsoft based. Maybe about 10% of the company had Macs, and we typically had to fight to get them. The Windows boxes required a huge amount of IT support per capita, while the Macs pretty much just worked and the Mac users didn't need much help. Not to mention that the Windows boxes were notoriously malware-prone and needed constant patches and the Macs didn't. I wondered for a long time why the company didn't just switch entirely to Macs. After all, most of the corporate apps were web-based and they worked fine on either platform. It took me a while to figure out exactly what you wrote above: The CIO didn't want a small, lean organization. He wanted a huge organization with a huge budget, because that's what looks good to C-level executives. Hence, Windows was the officially-sanctioned desktop solution.
hinkley 7y ago
I really did enjoy my brief times working on embedded devices. Design conversations are quite a bit easier when physics is on your side. I wish the IoT space weren't such a dumpster fire. I should go back to my plan to run a website on a cluster of nanoPi's.
rossdavidh 7y ago
Good point that lower bandwidth was once a restraint on this.

cercatrova 7y ago

Resources are allocated to their constraints. You spend as much money as you have, as much time as you have, you hire as many people as you can afford, and so on. It may be because people don't think on an absolute time scale but rather a relative one; if you make 1 million in revenue and you only have 3 employees, you might feel like you should hire more. What happens if you start making one billion in revenue? Read Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber if you haven't already.

natrik 7y ago
Also companies aim to maximize the margins. If profit is currently $800,000/year and adding 1 software developer at $120,000/year salary (+benefits, hidden costs...) can lead to $800,001 profit, the company would do it.
- oblio 7y ago
  And that's actually rational behavior. It's also a very simple and very materialistic explanation of why humankind evolves, bit by bit. It works the same way even for discovering new medicine or any kind of technology. The new thing must be at least a bit better than the old thing. Over time those improvements compound and you end up with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPF4fBGNK0U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPF4fBGNK0U
rixed 7y ago
Also known as "Parkinson's law". Also the name of the little funny book where you will find the origin of "bikeshedding". More pleasant and timelesd a book than "bullshit job", IMHO.
- euoia 7y ago
  What's the full title of the book? I searched on Amazon and there are a few titles containing "Parkinson's Law". Thanks.
  - iherbig 7y ago
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parkinsons-Law-Pursuit-Progress-Business/dp/0140091076 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Parkinsons-Law-Pursuit-Progress-Bus...
    - rixed 7y ago
      Yes that one indeed.

Aeolun 7y ago

It’s because you can do a lot of work manually if you have 40 extra drones. If there’s only 10 of you you need to think about things and automate.

buboard 7y ago

So , is it a result of the VC funded bubble? If that's the case it will not outlast the next bubble burst maybe.

rossdavidh 7y ago
While I don't think the phenomenon would completely vanish without the VC funded bubble, I have to think that it has exacerbated it significantly. But, you know, I guess we'll find out sometime in the next couple years.

dreamcompiler 7y ago

In the early 2000s I worked for a company whose IT infrastructure was primarily Microsoft based. Maybe about 10% of the company had Macs, and we typically had to fight to get them. The Windows boxes required a huge amount of IT support per capita, while the Macs pretty much just worked and the Mac users didn't need much help. Not to mention that the Windows boxes were notoriously malware-prone and needed constant patches and the Macs didn't. I wondered for a long time why the company didn't just switch entirely to Macs. After all, most of the corporate apps were web-based and they worked fine on either platform. It took me a while to figure out exactly what you wrote above: The CIO didn't want a small, lean organization. He wanted a huge organization with a huge budget, because that's what looks good to C-level executives. Hence, Windows was the officially-sanctioned desktop solution.

hinkley 7y ago

I really did enjoy my brief times working on embedded devices. Design conversations are quite a bit easier when physics is on your side. I wish the IoT space weren't such a dumpster fire. I should go back to my plan to run a website on a cluster of nanoPi's.

rossdavidh 7y ago

Good point that lower bandwidth was once a restraint on this.