Why do software developers love complexity?
4 ghendelf 5 8/30/2025, 4:56:36 PM kyrylo.org ↗
Comments (5)
mmarian · 18h ago
To improve employability prospects. I've been asked many times in interviews what is the most complex project I worked on.
abstractspoon · 18h ago
I think complexity most often arises when driven by an incomplete understanding of the problem domain
anovikov · 1d ago
We love complexity because it lets us create moats that compels bosses to keep us employed because no one else could understand our shitty purposefully overcomplicated code.
ghendelf · 18h ago
But to reach employer lock-in, we could use other means...
To me, it's more than just code, it's architecture and tools : although insights exist into clean or lean architecture, it's almost always behemoth-sized, complex, too-much-frameworked architectures that are picked up, and not always by developers.
At my work, these projects tend to scare off newcomers (either junior or senior), who just won't stay because of the sheer complexity and lack of enthusiasm maintaining them.
Apps as a rule are definitely heavier and more complex than what they used to be, just to deliver the same functions or added value. Why go this way ?
rvz · 1d ago
TLDR: It is for job security. To convice their managers that *only* they can understand the terrible code the have written the software in.