> I find it frustrating that in 2017 I still spend plenty of time waiting for the computer to do something. Occasionally even typing into a text field in a web browser is laggy on my high-end late-model iMac. For every extra cycle the hardware engineers give us, we software engineers figure out some way to soak it up.
I totally agree. In a very subjective sense, it feels like despite our massive advancements in hardware, computers aren't getting any faster.
I have vivid memories using web browsers around 2000 or WinAmp 3 back in the mid 90s and they felt like about the same speed as what I get today. Obviously the complexity of our apps have increased by an order of magnitude or two, but the things we're doing with them are not an order of magnitude more complex. In a very real sense it's like you say: we're soaking up all the advances that new hardware is providing, and mostly just because we can.
> I find it frustrating that in 2017 I still spend plenty of time waiting for the computer to do something. Occasionally even typing into a text field in a web browser is laggy on my high-end late-model iMac. For every extra cycle the hardware engineers give us, we software engineers figure out some way to soak it up.
I totally agree. In a very subjective sense, it feels like despite our massive advancements in hardware, computers aren't getting any faster.
I have vivid memories using web browsers around 2000 or WinAmp 3 back in the mid 90s and they felt like about the same speed as what I get today. Obviously the complexity of our apps have increased by an order of magnitude or two, but the things we're doing with them are not an order of magnitude more complex. In a very real sense it's like you say: we're soaking up all the advances that new hardware is providing, and mostly just because we can.