114 lines
5.2 KiB
HTML
114 lines
5.2 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
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<html>
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<meta name="description" content="Rawley.xyz, Rawley Fowler's software fundamentalist philosophy">
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<title>rawley.xyz/philosophy</title>
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h4 {
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h5 {
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<header>
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<h1>
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<a href="/">/home/rawley.xyz</a>
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</h1>
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<nav>
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<li>
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<a href="/blog">blog</a>
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<li>
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<a href="/resume">resume</a>
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<a href="/philosophy">philosophy</a>
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<li>
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<a href="/web-ring">web ring</a>
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</nav>
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</header>
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<main>
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<h3>Philosophy</h3>
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<h4>The Problem with Modern Computing</h4>
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<p>
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As computers get faster get faster, code quality and performance get's worse. The tragectory of the software world
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(particularily in the web dev sector) is to produce solutions to problems, without considering
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performance, optimization, and availability. How many billions of CPU cycles have been
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lost rendering SPA's and PWA's? In reality, computers are limited tools for communication, mathematics,
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and entertainment, not for loading 2MB JavaScript payloads, that in turn render the page.
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</p>
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<h4>Solve Your Own Problems</h4>
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<p>
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These ideas also, drastically effect the availability of software. Most software nowadays is horrifically bloated.
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It's not rare to see 2GB `node_modules` folders when working on Node.js projects, and the best part is, half of
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the packages are just simple packages like `isOdd` and `isEven`. How lazy have developers become? We reach for
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pre-made solutions to well-defined problems when we could easily write our own without exposing our software to
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potential security vulnerabilities, and inturn reducing bloat. Some developers will argue
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"why do it yourself when I can get a premade solution, that I know works!" Sure, download that dependency, link that
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project to yours, but know this. You will <b>never</b> develop anything truly unique if the solutions to <u>your</u>
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problems are solved by people smarter than you. Simply put, how do you think the library creators made it to the level
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they're at today?
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</p>
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<p>
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Packages also, can make us feel very productive. This is something that Jonathan Blow points out in one of his talks,
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Blow mentions that high-level languages, and libraries make us feel like we're doing a lot more than we really are.
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Ken Thompson and company wrote most of Unix in 3 weeks; an entire operating system, kernel and all. Compare this to
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the most "productive" day of a web developer. Blow demonstrates in his talk that as companies progress they hire more
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and more people, but the products and codebases of the companies rarely change drastically enough to warrant this. Meta
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for example, employs 71 thousand people as of 2021, how often does Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp change?
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To put it nicely, most developers don't do very much at all.
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(To put it in math terms where p(x) = productivity per employee, and x = number of employees,
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Lim x -> ∞ p(x) = 0).
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</p>
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<p>
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It is far more interesting, educational, and engaging to solve problems, rather than use a pre-built solution. Developers
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will create truly unique, and engaging solutions that can be iterated and improved, when needed without having to pester
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library maintainers. And to top it all off, your solution will be unique to your workload and problem. You will be solving
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your problem better than something generic.
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</p>
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<h4>The Core 2 Duo Standard</h4>
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<p>
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Software before the 2010's had to take into account the machines that they were running on, in turn
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causing software to be developed in a more intimate way. Machines were fair, but not powerful. Think,
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Intel Core 2 Duo, 2-4gb of DDR2. This hardware is actually very good, and in my opinion as much as an
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average person needs (even today). If you write software (outside of graphics programming, games, etc),
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and it can't run on a Intel Core 2 Duo, you need to seriously re-think what you're doing, and how you're doing it.
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</p>
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<h4>Conclusion</h4>
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<p>
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Do it yourself. Only use what you need. Take ownership of your work.
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</p>
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<p>
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It's really a beautiful and unique way to approach software, and to an extent, life.
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I find much more gratification and self purpose when I solve my own problems indepdent of pre-existing solutions.
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The world would be a much better place if we focused more on what we need vs. what we want. This is especially powerful
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in software, but can also be applied to how your own happiness. Finally, taking ownership and responsibility of your
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work will make you better at the work, and also, a more pragmatic person overall.
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</p>
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</main>
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<footer>
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<hr>
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<p>
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Copyright © Rawley Fowler 2022
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</p>
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<p>
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<b>Disclaimer</b>: All opinions on this site, are that of my own. They do not
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reflect the opinions of any of my employers; past, present, or future.
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</p>
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</footer>
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</body>
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</html>
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