The James Webb Space Telescope took two and a half decades of effort, but the plan worked.
I could list a thousand plans that worked.
Now, why do we, as software developers, not think plans work? Because they're less well suited to our domain and the reason for that is that our domain is incredibly complicated, changes frequently, AND it's incredibly maneuverable.
What this means is that its more efficient to rely on this inherent maneuverability and build fast feedback loops to code our way towards a vague goal than it is to start planning for something 20 years away.
Is someone really going to game out whether webhooks or HTTP long polling are going to fit 2042's software landscape better? No. It doesn't matter. There will be transports for data. There will be instruction sets. The abstractions will change and morph over time, but it's not fruitful to ponder the explosion of possibilities. It's enough to pick a direction and step on the gas and figure out the rest as you go.
The Marshall Plan worked.
The James Webb Space Telescope took two and a half decades of effort, but the plan worked.
I could list a thousand plans that worked.
Now, why do we, as software developers, not think plans work? Because they're less well suited to our domain and the reason for that is that our domain is incredibly complicated, changes frequently, AND it's incredibly maneuverable.
What this means is that its more efficient to rely on this inherent maneuverability and build fast feedback loops to code our way towards a vague goal than it is to start planning for something 20 years away.
Is someone really going to game out whether webhooks or HTTP long polling are going to fit 2042's software landscape better? No. It doesn't matter. There will be transports for data. There will be instruction sets. The abstractions will change and morph over time, but it's not fruitful to ponder the explosion of possibilities. It's enough to pick a direction and step on the gas and figure out the rest as you go.