Hacker News Reader

Comment by foxhill | Hacker News Reader

> I would say there seems to be a great affinity amongst in the tech industry for anything that is (relatively) complex.

hah, i've noticed that too - specifically around k8s/deployments/system architecture too. i've taken to calling it complexity fetishisation.

i think it stems from the belief/hope that, whilst they don't "google sized" data today, they need to allow for it.

i'll take two toasters, please.

View on HN

The reason for complexity fetishisation (great term!) is to show everybody else how amazingly smart you are. It's the infrastructure version of "clever" code.

Except to some of us it shows just the opposite.

Its starting to get depressing at my age. After nearly 20 years in the industry I think I have a knack for keeping things as "simple as necessary and no more" and managing complexity. Unfortunately interviews are full of bullshit looking at pedantic nitpicking, or stuff I learned 20 years ago in university and have never needed to use since.

Someone else above in the thread believes there is "great value" in being able to accomodate complexity, what the commenter refers to as a "general" solution, as well as this being worth any cost in performance. God help you if these are the type of people who are doing the interviews. Despite pedantic technical questions, I doubt they are actually screening for crucial skills like reducing complexity. Rather, the expectation is that the tech worker will tolerate complexity, including the "solutions" to managing it that are themselves adding more complexity, e.g., abstraction.

Just focus on staying relevant with new languages and ignore the hypetrain that is k8s. Its something you can learn on the job and can easily talk your way around in an interview.

The older i get the more i realise the less i want in my stacks.

This article listed as a benefit, frequent, multiple major updates each year, new features and no sign of it slowing down. I just cringed and wondered who the fuck is asking for this headache?

Ive been working a lot with wordpress lately and the stability of the framework is spoiling me rotten.

I predict that you'll get down-voted into oblivion, but I agree with you :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com