HACKER Q&A
📣 bknasmueller

Looking for article that mocks complexity of modern frontend development


Hi HN; I once read an article (I believe on HN) that described the struggling of an "old-school" JavaScript developer with the complexity of modern frontend development. It sort of went like "Ok, I simply use jquery to make this AJAX call, right? Oh, jQuery is no longer the way to go, I need Angular? Alright, lets download Angular; what are you saying, I first need npm?" etc.

Anyone who is able to recall this article and could provide me a link? Unfortunately it's really hard to find via Google. Would be much appreciated!

  👤 austin-cheney Accepted Answer ✓
I am not sure of the specific article you are looking for but I have two things that might be helpful.

There is this older famous article about hating frameworks (factory factories) - https://www.gwern.net/docs/cs/2005-09-30-smith-whyihateframe...

Many front end developers need a giant framework for no other reason than state management. When I mention that state management is ridiculous easy many incredibly smart people become frustrated and angry. Then I link them to a tiny 4 point how-to guide and while they are dancing through a wild rainbow of cognitive complexity to formulate defensive opinions than don’t make any sense. That article is this: https://github.com/prettydiff/wisdom/blob/master/state_manag...