i've been a software developer of some sort for a little while now. i dare say things have gotten more "complex" over time. i use scare quotes because that's a complex and subjective subject, but i do feel that if only because we strive to support more platforms and skus these days, trying to develop software ends up being (this is my money quote thought of the day) about 90% recursive fractal side-quests. e.g. where you are trying to either set up some minimally reproducing example of a problem, or you are actually trying to fix some other issue that is getting in the way of the issue you started off with. it kind of bugs me that somehow our science & industry seems to think that's an ok status quo.