Gordon Brander talking about why you should not rebuild software ecosystem. And if you are rebuilding a software ecosystem, you might be screwed.
Software can be rebuilt, because software is a machine. But a software ecosystem is not a machine. It is a living system. When we attempt to rebuild the ecosystem, we’re making a category error. We’re confusing the software for the ecological process unfolding around it.
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You can’t rebuild an ecosystem, just like you can’t rebuild the Amazon rainforest. You can only grow with it, or bulldoze it and start over from zero.
May be that’s why legacy modernisation projects are so complex. Because you are screwed but you don’t know where.