Why software ends up complex · Alex Gaynor

important questions do tend to be full of complexity and trade-offs, not just in tech but in policy in general. That’s how policy works. There are always answers that are simple, clear and wrong, and each of the frameworks I’ve discussed here works in some cases but not others.

The key to building complex systems is not designing complexity from the start. Instead, it’s about building simple systems, allowing them to fail, and iterating on those systems based on what works and what does not work.

To developers, the most conspicuous difference between web based and desktop software is that a web-based application is not a single piece of code. It will be a collection of programs of different types rather than a single big binary. And so designing web-based software is like designing a city rather than a building: as well as buildings you nee

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In the real world, the systems we build are part of complex adaptive systems that encompass developers, users, and customers, as well as their environments and organizational contexts. This reality calls for a more dynamic, almost organic approach to architecture and design, one that allows you to learn as you go and adapt your software to ever-cha

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