Unlimited possibilities are dangerous.
- Why did the Roman empire collapse, notwithstanding its size?
- Why do even huge monopolistic conglomerates go broke?
- Why does software grow in complexity until it is unmaintainable?
My personal opinion: there is a natural boundary within which things stay under control.
This boundary tends to be out of reach because of a number of external forces.
- Other countries defend their borders.
- Competitors limit the market share of a supplier, define boundaries for quality, sales price and time-to-market.
- Time and budget limit software developers.
Remove those boundaries and things go wrong.
- Remove the balance between countries and they will grow until they collapse.
- Without competition, companies grow till they are no longer able to control themselves.
- Offer a software developer unlimited time and budget and the software will grow to his level of incompetence.
Even something as simple as
a style sheet
grows incredibly complex.
Hmm, something to ponder.
I am not a political or business consultant, so I limit my conclusion to software:
Time and budget limitations prolong the lifetime of software.
Software developers,
welcome the deadlines
of your customers with great joy.
Celebrate a limited budget.
Keep software simple.
Stay well within your own level of competence.
Customers and the software emperors that succeed you will be grateful.
Till next week,
Nut
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