Code Simplicity

Code Simplicity

What’s Wrong With Computers

by Max Kanat-Alexander
Published on January 12, 2008

Note: This is a “classic” article from my old blog, but with some new revisions. This article was where I started with the idea of simplicity in computing, and I’ve been going on that idea ever since.

Computers have created a major societal change. The reason is that you can do more work with fewer people. That’s really the entire value of a computer—it can do a lot of work, really fast. If a person was to do, by hand, all the math that a computer does just when it starts up, it would probably take the rest of that person’s life.

So that’s great.

Problem is, they break. They break all the time. If anything in my house broke as frequently as my computer, I would return it. Most of the people that I know, their computer crashes at least once a day. Almost every day, I see a computer break in a way that I’ve never seen before. That’s been pretty much every day since I was about eight years old, so I’ve probably seen a computer break over 41,000 different ways, now.

That’s not great.

Why do computers break so much? For software, there’s one reason, and one reason only. Bad programmers.

Now, I didn’t used to be a programmer, and so I wondered about this sort of thing. I suspected that there were bad programmers, but it was sort of like blaming “witches” for a bad crop harvest. I didn’t really know anything about the subject, so there was some reasonable doubt.

Now that I am a programmer, and I have worked for a long time in a professional setting, and have talked extensively to other people who have been professional programmers for a long time, I can confirm that it really is bad programmers.

So, what is a bad programmer and why would somebody be one? This term, “bad programmer,” is pretty ambiguous. Also, most of the people I’ve ever met aren’t totally illogical, so there must be some reason why they would do “bad” programming.

Basically, it all revolves around complexity. Keep Reading

Welcome to Code Simplicity!

by Max Kanat-Alexander
Published on January 12, 2008

Welcome to Code Simplicity!

There are a lot of technical blogs in the world. There are a lot of technical people in the world. It’s a technical world.

Unfortunately, it’s also becoming more and more a complex world.

The focus of Code Simplicity is to discuss simplicity and simple things in the world of computers. I think the greatest application of intelligence is taking something complex and making it simple.

If you know of any particular examples where somebody took something really complex and made it simple, let me know and I’d be happy to feature it here. I’d really like real-world stories of how simplicity improved your life in the world of computing.

At first, I’m going to be re-posting some (possibly revised) articles from my personal blog. After that, there should be some new content, and hopefully, some user-submitted content!

Anyhow, this is mostly just a “Hello, and Welcome” post, and soon there will be more real content here. 🙂

-Max

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Max Kanat-Alexander Follow

mkanat
July 11, 2023

If you’re on Threads, I made an account there:

I expect to keep posting here, too. :)

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May 26, 2023

The ability to change is key to the survival of any software.

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May 17, 2023

隔了一年才知道這件事,Code Simplicity 的作者 Max Kanat-Alexander 表示自己撰寫書籍的目的不是為了賺錢,而是為了傳達資訊以幫助到更多的人們。

因此與 O'Reilly 溝通取得書籍的發行權,讓他得以將封面取下後,免費地在他的網站上發行書籍提供讀者下載。

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May 17, 2023

It is important to differentiate between “I don’t understand this,” and “this cannot be understood.”

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May 9, 2023

Had a great conversation with @gradle about how to turn data about developer productivity tools into real improvements for your company.

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