Fishbowl

I’ve often felt that software development projects were representative fishbowls for the rest of reality.

They have the same toxic mix that we see everywhere else, just on a smaller scale. It’s technology mixed with people mixed with business mixed with time.

Because of its turbulent history, technology is an ever-growing mess. It kinda works, but it's ugly and prone to glitches. We’ve spent decades desperately trying to avoid applying any serious engineering to our efforts.

People all have their own personal agendas that they often prioritize over the success of the collective work.

Some executives would prefer a low-quality early release so they can quickly claim success and move on. Software developers often pick inappropriate technologies to check off boxes on their resumes. All sorts of other players poke their fingers into the pie, hoping to make their careers.

People do what they think is best for themselves, which can be negative overall.

Meanwhile, they are circled by sales and business sharks hoping for a quick buck. They’ll promise anything if it will get their foot in the door. Lots of money is at stake. The software industry is slimy.

As the clock is ticking, too often the domain and engineering aspects fall to the ground. People stop caring about building solid tech that solves the user’s problem; they are more focused on their own issues.

This chaos devolves into producing a mess. Stuff tossed together too quickly for all the wrong reasons. The codebase turns to mud. It becomes a time vortex, with people desperately circling the edge, trying not to get sucked further in.

What usually works in software development is to return to the real underlying priorities. Ignore the surrounding circus. Keep producing reasonable code that goes as far as it can to really solve deep problems. It needs to be neat and consistent. A clean workspace avoids a lot of friction. All of the little details need attention. Programming involves a lot of patience.

If the codebase is solid, all the other problems remain at bay. If the codebase collapses, it opens the floodgates and lets the game get way out of control.

In that sense, it is all about controlling and minimizing the complexities. Fighting all the time to keep the artificial complexities from spawning, while making sure the inherent ones are satisfied.

Mastering this requires both a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience. It is a tricky juggling act. Keeping a million little balls in motion and off the ground while people scream at you about time.

That’s why people promising simple answers to these types of complex situations are inevitably destructive. They pick a few balls and improve those while the rest fall to the ground with a resounding thud. It seems to work right up until it inevitably collapses.

You can eliminate as much of the artificial complexity as possible, but never any of the inherent complexity. It remains and cannot be ignored. In software, you either have a reasonable codebase or you have a mess. This seems to be true elsewhere in meatspace as well.