Actually, UDP was “un-designed” by me and others. By this I mean that UDP was the final expression of a process that today we would call “factoring” an overly complex design.

Actually he should not be embarrassed. Engineering at the core is taking something complex and making it simple, as simple as can be but not too simple. It takes tons of effort to simplify. That is why most engineers/developers think that complexity shows their knowledge, it is actually the direct reverse of that. But where you try to simplify you will feel currents pulling you the other way and you'll have to swim upstream for a bit.

Thank you for inventing UDP and by inventing I mean simplifying something unnecessarily complex into something usable. It has been the key to many game technologies and has made possible and been a base platform for some wonderfully complex things, simply by being simple. Complexity only through simple parts.

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” ― Ernst F. Schumacher

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” ― Confucius