I initially wrote "over-engineering" in the title, but changed it to "complexity" so as to not unnecessarily trigger some readers. I've been in the software industry for 20 years, and on HN for 10. This quarter was the first time I've seen a pattern of a lot of engineers yearning for old-fashioned simplicity while critiquing "modern" tech and practices, some of which were still on vogue just a year ago. E.g.

Imaginary Problems Are the Root of Bad Software https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36380711

Looming demise of the 10x developer – an era of enthusiast programmers is ending https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36719409

Every time you click this link, it will send you to a random Web 1.0 website https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36739920

Windows 9x and Word 9x at 800x600 resolution. Spacious. Comfy https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36682403

Why I Hate Frameworks (2005) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36637655

DevOps Is Bullshit https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36354049

How I run my servers (2022) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36744090

Look ma, no React: I recoded my portfolio site with vanilla everything https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36736576

Don't Take VC Funding – It Will Destroy Your Company https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36654960

Some of these submissions would have been received very differently in the past.

I was just entering the industry when the original OOP craze began, and for the longest time, thought I was stupid or crazy for not "getting" it and preferring to write simple functions. Same with cloud-native systems, reactive SPAs, container orchestration, SCRUM, and a bunch of other practices. In a way, this is refreshing. But at the same time, I worry that this may signal the end of the current era of explosive growth in software (both in terms of tech and money), and what we thought would be perpetual progress may in fact be a brief summer. Does anyone else feel this way?

user:	silencethendang
created:	June 25, 2023
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