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Comment by kqr | Hacker News Reader

That's not how I see it. Imagine for a moment that we had an epidemic where every family just had to build a five-story mansion complete with service buildings to feel like they keep up with the Joneses.

That's what I see a lot of in software right now.

I'm merely suggesting that maybe a regular two-story family house is enough. Maybe even one story, depending on needs.

Note that only the first sentence of my comment said "don't automate". The other eight described a way to automate with less complexity when you have to.

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Imagine for a moment

I think this is the problem - you are imagining a question that isn't being asked by telling someone to just not make that problem.

This person asked for book on managing complexity. You are saying 'just don't make software as complex and do it by not making software at all'. That is two steps removed from being any sort of answer to this question.

I don't see it that way. When I have had trouble managing complexity, I have been happy for advice on how to reduce it going forward.

Step one to solving a problem is often to find a technique by which time is no longer stacked against you. Then you can attack the other thing in peace.

I have been happy for advice on how to reduce it going forward.

You didn't do that, your solution was 'don't write software'.

If someone asks for tips on organizing their kitchen and without knowing anything more than that, you say 'make your kitchen smaller and don't use your kitchen' do you think that is reasonable advice?

Not writing as much software will result in reduced complexity going forward.

Sure, if someone built tens of industrial kitchens every month for regular families and just in the middle of nowhere (which is what i see a lot of in software) and then asked "how can I reduce my kitchen expenses" I would suggest "how about going forward you make your kitchens smaller and don't build them at all where nobody uses them?"

No one asked if they "should write software they don't need".

You are answering a question that no one would ever ask and you can't answer it because you don't have any other information other than the actual question that was asked.

Given that my comment immediately rose to the top of the thread and then stuck there, I have some evidence that people think it's a good suggestion.

Just because you don't see how it's a good suggestion doesn't mean it's not.

That doesn't mean anything. If someone asks how to cook and you say 'just don't eat lol', that's not an answer and is just a self indulgent response based on nothing.

Wow, people on the internet really will argue about anything.

@kqr, thank you for your insights. While it's not exactly relevant to my problem domain (self-driving cars - lots of essential complexity there!), it's still generally useful advice.

Software is expensive to write, but it's even more expensive to maintain. That's why my favorite projects are those that delete large amounts of now-useless code. Not writing it in the first place is an even better alternative.

Why ask a question if the answer is to just not do the thing you're trying to improve?

If someone asks "how do I get to this place" with no other context and the advice is "stay home and do nothing" that doesn't seem patronizing to you?

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