This post is making the completely wrong conclusion.
The reason companies like Instagram, Imgur, etc are able to service large #s of users with 7 engineers is mainly because computers and tools are a lot CHEAPER than they used to be, not simpler.
Cheaper. Less expensive. This allows small teams to build really huge things because generally small teams don't have much money (because if they did, they'd have a bigger team!), and the fact that stuff is cheap allows them to build it in the first place. Open source = free. Computers, bandwidth = a lot cheaper than they were 5/10 years ago.
Snapchat couldn't have existed 10 years ago because it would have cost 100x what it costs today. In fact, things are so cheap these companies can overspend and run their service on AWS or Heroku because the price of computing doesn't matter as much [1].
Programming is just as complicated as it was before. In fact, anything where you have a team of 5+ people working on the same thing for years is going to be complicated whether it is software, legos, or plumbing. As tools get simpler, the product will compensate by becoming more complicated (which is why we are seeing more awesome software these days), and thus the level of complexity will be roughy the same.
Today I could build a product as a one-person team that would have been competitive 5/10 years ago, but today the bar is much higher, and of course it will continue to get higher as we software and the trade of building software improves.
1: Though companies like StackOverflow still build their own metal and because of that run their sites incredibly efficiently on a cost basis
I think the tools are not simpler as being simplist, but easier to use, maybe by having clearer objectives and design than it's predecessor.
Also, it was not long ago that put a web system was hardm with lot's of workaround or using not specialized tools for the job. Today is clearer what one need to create and support such system online.
If AWS is so overpriced, why isn't Amazon profitable? Colo is only cheap if you have cheap sysadmins and have a very predictable non-decreasing long-term compute need.
The reason companies like Instagram, Imgur, etc are able to service large #s of users with 7 engineers is mainly because computers and tools are a lot CHEAPER than they used to be, not simpler.
Cheaper. Less expensive. This allows small teams to build really huge things because generally small teams don't have much money (because if they did, they'd have a bigger team!), and the fact that stuff is cheap allows them to build it in the first place. Open source = free. Computers, bandwidth = a lot cheaper than they were 5/10 years ago.
Snapchat couldn't have existed 10 years ago because it would have cost 100x what it costs today. In fact, things are so cheap these companies can overspend and run their service on AWS or Heroku because the price of computing doesn't matter as much [1].
Programming is just as complicated as it was before. In fact, anything where you have a team of 5+ people working on the same thing for years is going to be complicated whether it is software, legos, or plumbing. As tools get simpler, the product will compensate by becoming more complicated (which is why we are seeing more awesome software these days), and thus the level of complexity will be roughy the same.
Today I could build a product as a one-person team that would have been competitive 5/10 years ago, but today the bar is much higher, and of course it will continue to get higher as we software and the trade of building software improves.
1: Though companies like StackOverflow still build their own metal and because of that run their sites incredibly efficiently on a cost basis