Scaling and Maturation
Came accross this great comment from Erik Naggum as part of larger polemic:
Scaling and maturation are not the obvious processes they appear to be because they take so much time that the accumulated effort is easy to overlook. To be successful, they must also be very carefully guided by people who can envision the end result, but that makes it appear to many as if it merely “happens”. Take a good idea out of its infancy, let it age without guidance so it does not mature, and it generally goes bad.
I think the only evidence of good ‘design’ in in how software ages. The rest is noise.