I dunno how to put this in a non-controversial way, but...at some point, I switched from thinking a desirable, throw-the-money-at-them developer is somebody who writes a lot of code to somebody who understands things and is capable of understanding new ones when they arise.
I'm not saying that to excuse thrash. Thrash is bad. But like..."oh, at some point you'll have to have somebody who actually understands how the thing we use to make money works"--you should have that person anyway! It's an existential threat to your business not to.
Understanding things is our job. Unless you're somewhere where understanding things isn't valued, and 1) it's gonna eventually fail, and 2) you have better places to be.
> somebody who understands things and is capable of understanding new ones when they arise.
Some of us won't let go of the crazy dream that things should be simpler. I want this not because I'm lazy or because I don't understand them but because - dammit - things should be simpler.
Complex things are complex. Attempting to simplify complex systems below this threshold of complexity invariably ends in lost capability or lost fingers when the sharp edge you didn't know was there sneaks up on you.
And web browsers are very complex beasts by design, by accretion, and by necessity.
Sorry, I guess. Does bemoaning it actually help anything?
But we're not talking about web browsers per se - we're talking about the javascript ecosystem. The complexity of which is only indirectly related to that of the browser.
I'm not saying that to excuse thrash. Thrash is bad. But like..."oh, at some point you'll have to have somebody who actually understands how the thing we use to make money works"--you should have that person anyway! It's an existential threat to your business not to.
Understanding things is our job. Unless you're somewhere where understanding things isn't valued, and 1) it's gonna eventually fail, and 2) you have better places to be.