I’ve lost count of the number of developers who rave at me about how things have advanced, “look at Spring or AJAX or ……” they cry.

But is anything really changing? I don’t think there’s any doubt that things are moving along but it’s at snails pace. Why? Because whilst we have a new tool or IDE plugin or container it’s based on the same old programming/architectural model:

1. N-tier
2. Application running in a single JVM
3. No concept of remoteness
4. Little explicit concurrency

i.e. Whilst we change the way we build our applications at code level to some degree, we don’t change our architecture or programming model. We are locked into one way of thinking and subconsciously enforce it on everything we look at. This lock-in causes us significant stress when we attempt to evaluate something with a different programming or architectural model with typical responses being:

1. It’s too complex
2. I can’t understand it
3. It melts my brain

But this is a good sign, this is real learning that stretches you in new directions and makes you a better, more rounded techie. If you don’t thrive on this stuff you can’t be cutting edge and you’re certainly not advancing significantly.

Think different - that’s genuine progress!

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