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http://www.berglas.org/Articles/ImportantThatSoftwareFails/ImportantThatSoftwareFails.html http://www.berglas.org/Articles/ImportantThatSoftwareFails/I...

• spit2wind 3y ago
  Yes! This is the one. So good. People who enjoy that may also enjoy "All Late Projects are the Same" https://web.archive.org/web/20130818024030/http://www.computer.org/cms/Computer.org/ComputingNow/homepage/2011/1111/W_SW_AllLateProjectsAretheSame.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20130818024030/http://www.comput...
• diurnalist 3y ago
  Good find :) I find it interesting how this ties in to the "productivity paradox."[0] The idea the author seems to be getting at--that software accelerates the creation of ever more elaborate solutions (often to problems created by prior iterations of software), and in the process leaves a wake of complexity that frustrates and baffles the society it was supposed to serve--is something I'd like to read more about. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productivity_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productivity_paradox
• dang 3y ago
  Related: Why it is important that software projects fail (2008) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24390855 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24390855 - Sept 2020 (72 comments) Why It Is Important That Software Projects Fail (2008) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20109316 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20109316 - June 2019 (18 comments) Why it is Important that Software Projects Fail - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=932956 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=932956 - Nov 2009 (26 comments)
• actuallyalys 3y ago
  The article presents an interesting case study, but it's unclear how generalizable it is from a single example. One idea the author suggests is that tax agencies will grow to take up roughly 1 percent because 1 percent of the budget is so negligible. The U.S. provides an interesting contrast. In 1955, the IRS was 0.08 percent of GDP [0] [2]. In 2008, it was 0.093 percent of GDP [0] [1]. So it's much lower, but also has remained fairly steady between 1955 and 2008. Looking ahead, the new IRS budget is around $20 billion, which is 0.072 percent of GDP [0]. To pick another example, the Canadian Revenue Service was about 0.2 percent of GDP in 2018 [3] [4]. One other assumption is that the Australian Tax Office does the same, at least when normalized to GDP. I'm not sure that's true, but investigating that would take more time. [0] https://taxfoundation.org/blog/irs-budget-increase-technology/ https://taxfoundation.org/blog/irs-budget-increase-technolog... [1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYGDP https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYGDP [2] https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/budget-united-states-government-54/fiscal-year-ending-june-30-1957-19010 https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/budget-united-states-gov... See page 1000
  • nopeYouAreWrong 3y ago
    expense as a percentage of gdp is a nonsense number. expense as a percentage of the actual budget makes far more sense. why are we accepting silly statistics here?
    • actuallyalys 3y ago
      There are pros and cons to every statistic. Percent of GDP accounts for the fact that the economy is growing, which means more to tax. I used it primarily because the article does. I think percent of receipts makes more sense as receipts are essentially the agency’s product.
• yonki 3y ago
  thank you! Bookmarking now :)
  • Yujf 3y ago
    No problem, I actually hadn't read it myself but was intrigued enough to go looking. Worth it!