> They're only complex because developers want to make them complex.
I get your frustration but have to disagree; solutions like k8s exists because users, (often internal users mind you), expect things like rollouts of features several times a day, horizontal scalability etc.
I know there's a mantra on HN of let's go back to how things were in '95 and in some ways I'd love that but it just doesn't seem possible. You have to remember most devs just want to get their tickets done, they don't want to make anything complex if they can avoid it.
That being said if there's certain trends, (hardly set by your average developer), you have to go with at least some of it if you want to remain 'marketable' unfortunately.
I worked at a company that served 3 million MAU, deployed 30 times a day with PHP and a 4 TB Mysql database. Most of these tools are for companies like Twitter and Google. 99.9% of companies will never need them. The problems are made up, end of story.
I appreciate anecdotes as much as the next person but you're not responding to what I actually wrote; I am simply saying that it is not in the hands of most developers to use/not use these tools. They get no choice. Therefore blaming them is misplaced.
Most developers also don't think they're working at the next Google. There's a different group within many software companies that likes to think so, usually not your ICs.
Most developers also don't think they're working
at the next Google. There's a different group within
many software companies that likes to think so, usually
not your ICs.
In the past ten years, I've worked at three companies with dozens of developers.
I don't know if they "think they're working at the next Google", but I would say they have close to literally no conception of "performance" that doesn't mean "scaling out" to hilariously overcomplicated architectures that serve mainly to pump metric tons of money into AWS' coffers.
I worked at a company that thought you needed a Redis cluster because Performance Reasons. And they paid AWS handsomely for that belief.
What were we storing in Redis, you ask? Literally kilobytes of ephemeral data (cached values, etc).
A cluster. For kilobytes.
Obviously most examples aren't that nutty, but this kind of thinking has poisoned a whole generation of developers. It's not their money, so who cares about the AWS bill? Fuck hunting for missing indexes in the database, they just spin up a new server. It makes them look better to management because they're "getting things done" and management isn't tech-savvy enough to know otherwise.
And these aren't morons. These are talented people who are also kicking legitimate butt in many cases.
