Most software engineers think Zawinski's Law doesn't apply to their system.
"Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can."
There is this natural progression for all software systems inevitably grow in scope and complexity over time.
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He states this explicitly elsewhere "Apps that you 'live in' all day have pressure to become everything and do everything."
- Gmail jammed in a chat application back in the day
- Slack smushed in video chat functionality
- Every app was jamming in a GPT-ish chat feature about a year go
The law captures the natural tendency of successful software to accumulate features. Users want new features, and companies are inclined to listen to them.
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@raiderrobert iirc Slack had video that wasn’t great, took it out for some years, and put it back again.
