One thing this article completely ignores (as do many of the comments on the site) is that expectations have also drastically changed. Yes, Hypercard was dead s

One thing this article completely ignores (as do many of the comments on the site) is that expectations have also drastically changed. Yes, Hypercard was dead simple to get something useful actually working, but nobody would accept a web app that looked and behaved like a Hypercard app. I think the author is right: there is a none-to-healthy culture of increasing complexity surrounding web development. But there is also a large amount of real complexity around it. Many of the complexities we deal with today are the result of attempting to put an abstraction layer over deeper, larger complexities. Unfortunately, few abstraction layers work without leaks, and those leaks add their own complexity. With powerful browsers, APIs-as-a-service and single-page apps, we are almost to a point where the web itself has been abstracted. But, even with that, expectations are still incredibly high. Nobody wants to look at blocky, course web sites; they want beautiful, smoothly animated sites. And that takes complexity.