4 ms·

The problem with statement like "this looks too complex" is that it lacks substance and is used as a stick to beat people with, and often has alternative meanin

The problem with statement like "this looks too complex" is that it lacks substance and is used as a stick to beat people with, and often has alternative meanings. To combat this, you need to justify the complaint. In the case of lambda, I think being tied into an ecosystem of things that you can't run locally is a net loss, but Amazon has done a terrific job at making a bunch of people not super comfortable with compute, see just running a share-nothing process as the way to bridge the gap, like PHP never existed. Same thing happens with IT orgs that end up owning cloud. You get azure, regardless of whether you want such a thing.

kamray23 3y ago
Well, Amazon running applications on AWS Lambda is more like them having a general purpose cluster which all their services borrow when they need to run some boring unpredictable tasks than it being some bizarre remote service thing. I mean, it's theirs, it's technically local. Local enough.
klabb3 3y ago
> The problem with statement like "this looks too complex" is that it lacks substance and is used as a stick to beat people with, and often has alternative meanings. I’ve never seen anyone say this at $faang-gig. Ive certainly never been it used as a stick. While it’s true that any process can be abused, I’m taking about default burden of proof. > To combat this, you need to justify the complaint. Yeah, of course you can’t just say a magic word and expect others to fall in line. I’m claiming there should be justification for proposed increases in complexity. There is an asymmetry in where adding complexity is so trivial it is often accidental, whereas reducing complexity is labor intensive and so difficult that it’s often not cost-effective to even attempt it. Because of this asymmetry, complexity accumulates uncontrollable over time, unless you actively reduce it (expensive) or prevent it before it is implemented (cheaper). Otherwise your software engineers turns into software alchemists, imo.

kamray23 3y ago

Well, Amazon running applications on AWS Lambda is more like them having a general purpose cluster which all their services borrow when they need to run some boring unpredictable tasks than it being some bizarre remote service thing. I mean, it's theirs, it's technically local. Local enough.

klabb3 3y ago

> The problem with statement like "this looks too complex" is that it lacks substance and is used as a stick to beat people with, and often has alternative meanings. I’ve never seen anyone say this at $faang-gig. Ive certainly never been it used as a stick. While it’s true that any process can be abused, I’m taking about default burden of proof. > To combat this, you need to justify the complaint. Yeah, of course you can’t just say a magic word and expect others to fall in line. I’m claiming there should be justification for proposed increases in complexity. There is an asymmetry in where adding complexity is so trivial it is often accidental, whereas reducing complexity is labor intensive and so difficult that it’s often not cost-effective to even attempt it. Because of this asymmetry, complexity accumulates uncontrollable over time, unless you actively reduce it (expensive) or prevent it before it is implemented (cheaper). Otherwise your software engineers turns into software alchemists, imo.