> The only thing that matters in software is the experience of the user. The problem is, for most users, to have a decent experience you need... COMPLEXITY. S

> The only thing that matters in software is the experience of the user. The problem is, for most users, to have a decent experience you need... COMPLEXITY. See, there are roughly two groups of people when it comes to computers: * Real Human Beings. Your mom. Your sister. The CEO of the company you work for. People who have real needs that computers might help with, but don't want to futz with them to get them working. * Lizard People. People who love programming and don't mind futzing with a computer or its software. It's an open secret that they're not really human because it's all over the marketing. When Ubuntu called itself "Linux for humans" they were a) trying to assure their customer base that theirs was not a scary product intended for Lizard People; b) lying. Unix is a Lizard Person OS. Apple, who had already invented and perfected[0] the Real Human OS, did more or less the same to Unix by adding layers of complexity, but even then some of the ancient Lizard Person tech shows through. If you like building pipelines to process data, you are a Lizard Person. If you are concerned about how much resources a program is taking, you are a Lizard Person. If you hate that all this memory and CPU time is being WASTED to do something you could do with a couple of Unix commands, you are a Lizard Person. Real Humans may notice when their computer is slow; if it's a persistent problem they throw it away and go down to Best Buy to buy a new one. Do you see what I'm getting at? Most users are not computer literate, don't value becoming so, and get scared when they see the ancient underpinnings of Lizard Person technology. So in order for them to have a good experience, hiding the details, automating pain points like configuration, and putting a nice friendly face and good presentation on everything is an absolute MUST. That requires engineering complexity and layers of software working together. They are TABLE STAKES for a good experience. So while I find myself quoting Ryan Dahl an awful lot about the experience of users, I think 99% of the time I mean the exact opposite of what he means. [0] No, shut up. The Xerox Star sucked, and Smalltalk was a propaganda tool for indoctrination into the Lizard Person way of life. Inasmuch as computers are usable by Real Humans, the fact that they are so is an Apple invention entirely.