How It Feels to Build a Video Game and Watch It Die

You don't have to be a game developer to experience this. I once helped build a CRUD app for municipal tax assessors. It was a Windows desktop application, and cutting edge in 1999. In 2019, I was hired as a contractor to "reverse-engineer" my own code to create a web application that did the exact same thing, using Angular.

I just turned down a request to come back and recreate this exact same app with a serverless back-end and a front-end powered by React. Why? For the same reason I was called upon to help replace the Windows app: the tech wasn't trendy any longer. I refused because I wasn't willing to build yet another version of the same application that would be discarded once serverless and React ceased to be fashionable.

The masons, carpenters, and other artisans who once built cathedrals across Europe knew that their work would outlive them, and serve to glorify their God. The cathedrals we build rest not on solid ground but on quicksand, and glorify not God but Mammon. Is it any wonder that we so often outlive our own work?