Split ends

I wonder what per cent of code, or technology for that matter, is a charge ahead for a once needed solution, but one that did so at the wrong time as the need for it suddenly became moot.

Solutions set root in soil where there is a problem. From there, typically, some effort is made, code written, projects start. But sometimes, the underlying problem is swept away magically… but that news never makes it to what’s being built, and those efforts continue despite the now false premise.

I was crafting some code to take pictures from my laptop camera, and the problem was fun, as it was a solution for a tablet suddenly dying.

In one part of my mind, I had a project going to take pictures for a specific task, and was starting to get into the weeds of the particulars: post-processing of images; having those files sent along via TFTP to a server, etc.

Then, in a different part of my mind, I solved the underlying problem by snatching up a cheaply priced refurbished tablet that did everything I needed. But it took a few days for me to nudge the other part of my brain that I no longer needed to build my laptop camera solution.

I have noticed this happening before, but not to this degree, where I put in real hours into something for naught, after a solution waltzed into my life.

I bet a good deal of our economy has disjointed false progress like this. Heck, if the same brain is delayed to get the memo that a project is no longer needed, there isn’t much hope for systems more complicated in structure.