🎰 Why Easy-to-Use Apps Are Complex to Build, Gamble With Your Savings, and More
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#complexity #software #apps
I personally contend with a lot of complexity in my job as a software developer, mostly thinking about "where" to put it: is it better to spend time now to make the code less complex for future changes, or is it ok to leave it as it and we can deal with the complexity at a later time if needed? It's a question without a good answer, as it depends on a bunch of externalities you have no control over: will we maintain this feature for years to come? will it require constant tweaks? All this to say that someone at work recently posted about the Law of Conservation of Complexity which states that complexity can only be moved but not eliminated, which poses the question of...
[...] who should be exposed to the complexity. For example, should a software developer add complexity to the software code to make the interaction simpler for the user or should the user deal with a complex interface so that the software code can be simple?
Bruce Togazzini has a bold answer to that question: you shouldn't think about that, but about what happens when we — software developers — inevitably hide complexity inside the applications (i.e. make applications more powerful but simpler to use):
If people will insist on maintaining equal complexity, yet we reduce the complexity people experience in a given task, people will take on a more challenging task.
In other words, the more complexity we hide inside the applications, the simpler they are to use, and the more complex tasks the users will want to perform.
Given that people will continue to want the same level of complexity in their lives, given that we will continue to reduce the proportion of complexity of any given function that we expose to the user, we may expect that the difficulty and complexity of our own tasks, be they at the application or OS level, will only increase over time.
In the previous chart (via) we can see Togazzini proved right: there is an exponential explosion in the Lines Of Code (LOC, which we can use as a proxy for complexity) in commercial aircraft systems as time goes on. Pilots have now an easier time interacting with the systems, which frees up their “complexity reservoir” to take on more complex tasks.
Slack is another perfect example. Most of the people I talk to don't realize that the apps that look the simpler to use are in fact the most complex to build because all the complexity they don’t experience as users is contained inside the code. If you ever catch yourself thinking “it's easy to use, therefore it must be easy to build”, try to remember that if you as a user are not experiencing the complexity, someone must have dealt with it for you :-)
— Joan
Mario's links
#💰 #savings #gambling
Following the “an interesting startup I found this week” tradition, this time I am talking about Yotta Savings (ProductHunt), a startup that mixes the boring concept of saving with the economically absurd concept of lottery. YottaSavings uses a model similar to the British Premium Bonds, bonds whose interest is distributed as a lottery and that are held by a third of the British population (I really had no idea). In fact, Premium Bonds are the most popular savings vehicle in the UK but they don’t seem to be such a good investment/savings option (in case you are interested, see Premium Bonds: Are they worth it?). Anyway, the mix between savings and lottery/gambling seems very interesting to me and, as someone who works in the gambling industry, I can imagine a big addressable market for this product.
#🖥️ #remote #work-from-home
The trend towards “remote first” keeps growing and this time Quora is the one who announced that they will move to “remote first” starting now. The main reasons the CEO argues are lower commutes, more focus, the crazy housing in the bay area, and the difficulty to get visas to attract top talent from outside of the USA.
#🛒 #ecommerce #streaming
Alibaba recruits an army of 'influencers' for global e-commerce drive: E-commerce is evolving at a really fast pace and one of the last trends is “live streaming commerce”. It is interesting to see what a giant like Alibaba is doing to increase their global sales.
"Livestreaming-based ecommerce helps build trust," said Yuan Yuan, head of operations for AliExpress. "When you watch a livestreaming, you can directly interact with the seller and gain a better understanding of the product," she said.
#📰 #newspapers
Most newspapers have their own proprietary and independent paywall now. I recommend this short twitter thread that presents an option for newspapers to implement micropayments per article, something I find much more interesting than monthly/yearly subscriptions. I don’t think Bitcoin and Lightning network are the solution for the mass market, as they are too niche and they will keep being so for the coming years, but it is worth reading.
Joan's links
#🔗 #lifeChanging
Have you ever wanted to share a specific section of a long website but were unable to link to that specific location of the document because there were no anchor links? I have had this problem for what it feels for way too long so today I was thrilled when I discovered that Chrome recently solved this issue with the Scroll-to-Text Fragment functionality (Edge, as it’s based on Chromium now, is also getting the functionality)
You can create links to text fragments by installing this Chrome Extension, selecting any page on a website, right-click and selectCopy Link to Selected Text🙌
#COVID19 #economy
Continuing analyzing the New Normal and market irrationalities, Yelp published a study where, according to their data, around 41% of the businesses in the US which closed down at the beginning of the lockdown will not reopen. This seems to run directly against the argument for a V-shaped recovery and all their supporters, but what can I know 🤷♂️
#✈️ #stats #news
We will end with the curious statistic of the week: Almost 1 in 3 plane Pilots in Pakistan have fake licenses 😱
We wish you have a good rest of your week and enjoy July 4th (while staying safe from COVID-19) if you live in the US 🇺🇸