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I'm with you for most of this, but I do think one element you are missing here is that the ever-increasing scale is at least in part to blame as well. Yes, soft

I'm with you for most of this, but I do think one element you are missing here is that the ever-increasing scale is at least in part to blame as well. Yes, software is vastly more complicated today, and perhaps suffers more errors, although I would want to see data on that. But, like, YouTube in 2021 is a vastly more difficult engineering challenge than YouTube circa 2008. The same can be said for any site with users numbering now in the millions. E.g., not only have Netflix's streaming user counts exploded since 2007 when it launched, the quality expected now of on-demand streaming has strongly increased as well. Having said that, in reality that scale applies only to a small minority of products. I think an additional part of the real problem is the ever-present Cargo-Cult Oriented Programming model we've had for a while. I am sure container orchestration is important and maybe even required at places at Google scale. But I hear far too much about its use; it seems that nearly everyone is using it, and I really don't understand why. There seems to be a bit of a keeping-up-with-the-Jones effect, like people would be embarrassed to say that their startup relies on platforms that aren't the latest and greatest. Picking technologies because they sound cool on a resume or at a tech conference, instead of their use being appropriate for the circumstances, seems like a common issue.

goatinaboat 6y ago
I really don't understand why. There seems to be a bit of a keeping-up-with-the-Jones effect The industry strongly incentivises individual engineers to make decisions that will ensure the latest buzzwords appear on their CVs - far more strongly than it incentivises making sound decisions for their current organisation.
- crispyambulance 6y ago
  It's true, nobody wants to be left behind with a bunch of skills that aren't attractive to desirable employers. There's also very much a tendency to make things complicated in many workplaces as a form of job security and gatekeeping. But it doesn't last forever. Today's hot-shit is tomorrow's ball-and-chain. 10+ years from now, many k8s monsters will still be running and kept alive by stressed-out teams in India. Much like the "Oracle Enterprise Business Suite" giant-shit-ball from the late 90's is still working in many corporations doing absolute critical stuff with tentacles in every part of the org. Changes in these systems are nearly impossible because of the cost and nightmarish complexity, and _everyone_ is _forced_ to use it.
  - goatinaboat 6y ago
    There's also very much a tendency to make things complicated in many workplaces as a form of job security and gatekeeping It’s not only that it’s also boredom. Cranking out another cookie-cutter app can be much more fun if you do it in a novel way. Basically all the incentives are aligned towards exotic over-engineering rather than boring, safe but actually perfectly good choices. The danger will come if any savvy manager figures out what this costs them. So we’re probably all safe but you never know.

goatinaboat 6y ago

I really don't understand why. There seems to be a bit of a keeping-up-with-the-Jones effect The industry strongly incentivises individual engineers to make decisions that will ensure the latest buzzwords appear on their CVs - far more strongly than it incentivises making sound decisions for their current organisation.

crispyambulance 6y ago
It's true, nobody wants to be left behind with a bunch of skills that aren't attractive to desirable employers. There's also very much a tendency to make things complicated in many workplaces as a form of job security and gatekeeping. But it doesn't last forever. Today's hot-shit is tomorrow's ball-and-chain. 10+ years from now, many k8s monsters will still be running and kept alive by stressed-out teams in India. Much like the "Oracle Enterprise Business Suite" giant-shit-ball from the late 90's is still working in many corporations doing absolute critical stuff with tentacles in every part of the org. Changes in these systems are nearly impossible because of the cost and nightmarish complexity, and _everyone_ is _forced_ to use it.
- goatinaboat 6y ago
  There's also very much a tendency to make things complicated in many workplaces as a form of job security and gatekeeping It’s not only that it’s also boredom. Cranking out another cookie-cutter app can be much more fun if you do it in a novel way. Basically all the incentives are aligned towards exotic over-engineering rather than boring, safe but actually perfectly good choices. The danger will come if any savvy manager figures out what this costs them. So we’re probably all safe but you never know.