B r i a n V e r k l e y

bureaucracy

2006-11-27 22:22:34 • by Brian Verkley

Why is it that large systems can't hold it together?

please read all three articles linked from this slashdot story, then return.
http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/06/11/27/1728231.shtml

back so soon?
Anyway, it drives me insane to see large systems not work simply because they are large.  All the moving parts start to demand more glue between themselves and the next part, both for protection and to help them stick together.  Next that glue needs maintenance and more glue is added to support the glue.  Suddenly there is more glue than moving parts, and we all know how fast glue moves.

It isn't that the glue invents itself.  The moving parts literally demand the glue even if it doesn't perform the function that they originally intended.  We as people seem to prefer having glue rather than trusting that the other individual part won't destroy them.

Does nature work that way?  Is the reason that the same DNA is in my fingernail as my heart that every piece needs to know what the others are doing?  Is the "junk" in the DNA simply communication protocol glue between genes?

I don't know.  The point is that I too have seen that as the number of people grow, the sum of the output can decrease, which is definitely counter-intuitive.  I'm convinced it doesn't have to be this way, but I am baffled why so many people see it, then ask for more glue.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can pull out of this funk and if Google jumps in to it.

Comments

by Lisa Verkley • 2006-11-28 08:35:45

Try working for the Government. It takes a lot of people to cover everyone's collective ass and make sure everything is done right, that now we have so many people covering our asses, there is no one left working on the science that we were created for in the first place.