[dotancohen]

  > I teach Bazel and help companies adopt it.

The very fact that this occupation exists pushes me away from Bazel, having never used it. Makefiles are horrible, but they are well documented and I've been able to google my way out of every problem that I've either run into, inadvertently caused, or had to debug from somebody else's mess (it's always a mess).

I don't actually want a better build tool. I want a tool that I spend as little time as possible thinking about.

[kaba0]

But that’s not really how it works. Build systems exist in a complex domain — whether we like it or not, that complexity can’t really be hidden away, it will leak one way or another.

[dotancohen]

The complexity need not "leak" - it could be an explicit feature of the tool. Make kinds sorta does this, as the learning curve is steep from the beginning but stays constant. Tools that are easier to use at first but then smack the user with "leaked complexity" set the user up for situations he is not experienced enough to handle.

That might be fine in an enterprise setting where the user likely has a mentor or support contract to turn to. But it's not what I want at home.