The Complexity Cycle: Infrastructure Sprawl is a Killer

It is a simple thing to find references to the innovation cycle. Just type "innovation cycle" into your favorite search engine, and you'll be rewarded with millions of references in the blink of an eye. Now, finding references on the complexity cycle, however, is a bit more difficult. That might be because I just made it up, but I do not doubt that it exists and will continue to exist, just like innovation.

Complexity isn’t new. We have multiple generations of programming languages to prove that. The number of folks who understand and can harness the power of assembly language, for example, is dwindling.Stack Overflow’s 2023 survey found (a somewhat impressive) 5.43% of its 90000 respondents who have experience with assembly language. Compared to the 63.61% familiar with JavaScript or even the 49.28% experienced with Python, that number is small.

In fact, looking at the list, you can see the complexity cycle in action. Near the bottom are early languages like assembly. Moving up the stack you’ll encounter C, C#, Python, and JavaScript. It’s like walking through the evolutionary timeline of programming languages.

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