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It's Jevon's Paradox [1] applied to the browser, where increasing the efficiency in which the browser can be scripted paradoxically causes websites to become sl
by mediumdeviation 8y ago
It's Jevon's Paradox [1] applied to the browser, where increasing the efficiency in which the browser can be scripted paradoxically causes websites to become slower and harder to build. Not because JavaScript itself (or any of the libraries built on top it) got worse, but because by allowing developers the ability to script more and more complex applications, sites became slower, and developer tools became heavier to support these more complex demands.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox
- sephware 8y agoThat sounds similar to Wirth’s Law. In general the more efficient a computer’s hardware is, the more bloated its software will be, so the slower the whole system will run.
- vanderZwan 8y agoWhile certainly related, I think GP was suggesting more that the same idea also applies to ease of development rather than raw hardware power.
- MrEldritch 8y agoI think that the raw-hardware-power aspect is actually a special case of ease of development - in that case, it's the ease of not having to think about low-level consequences of your abstractions or spend effort on optimizing your code!
- vanderZwan 8y agoFair point!