[heisenbit]

Brooks argument if I remember right was about humans software always trying to push the envelope. So it is always going to be hard.

The inflationary phenomena described here is more about incremental decorative and accidental complexity. The root cause is not the human enterprising drive to go boldly where no man gone before.

Looking at the examples of adding headers and command line bells and whistles I wonder what human trait drives this? Those seem (product-)management and architecture/framework type decisions possibly driven by a need to have things uniform and under control.

Moore's law is tiring (it is more obvious on the data center side than in devices yes). Will we become more frugal again?