The Shepherd's Shelter

Perhaps worth a closer look.

I've been in the office today but not before getting out for a run on the moor. I thought I'd done well to beat the forecast rain but it never actually arrived at all. I guess it won't be too much longer. The moor is very wet right now but we've been let off quite lightly compared to the rest of the country. I don't think we've had so much rain and we've certainly not had so much wind. This is where blip comes into its own, being able to see reports coming in from all parts. There has been some amazing reportage.

I'm approaching the first full week of the working year with some trepidation. I've not managed to complete even half the urgent tasks that I had planned to tick off over the break. And it's not been for want of trying, or hours put in. Today has been typical. None of the problems I tried to sort out today yielded a solution. I have a way forward with most of them but all have revealed complications and are going to demand more time than anticipated. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling overwhelmed by the complexity of the modern world. Nothing seems simple any more.

I am experiencing a great ambivalence towards technology at the moment: a real love/hate relationship. I love the possibilities that it opens up (like this very site), but I'm growing to hate my dependency upon it. In my own field of web applications, user expectations as to what is possible are now so high (and rightly so) that the effort required to deliver software solutions is an order of magnitude greater than it was when I first started.

New technology, rather than making development simpler, actually makes it much more complex, simply because it opens up greater possibilities. And, of course, those possibilities are exciting. As developers, we want to explore these new technologies and see what we can create with them. We want to make the best product we can.

Our new software, even if I do say so myself, is astonishing in what it can do. It's taken 18 months to develop, in close liaison with the users so that they have an application which helps them provide the most professional possible service to their clients. But the complexity under the bonnet has got a little out of control. I look at the code now and I have trouble understanding much of it. It's grown too big for any one person to grasp as a whole. I'm sure it's the same with most software houses. With the best will in the world it's just not possible to eliminate all the bugs.

I do wonder if we're now getting close to a limit in terms of the complexity of the software that we are forced to use today. It might be getting more powerful but is it actually getting any better in respect of reliability and ease of use, and helping us rather than frustrating the hell out of us? I suspect we are close to some kind of tipping point. I'm trying to plan my exit from this business just at that very moment. And perhaps move in here. With a few books, a few pencils and a big notebook!