Complexity

I was reading another white paper from a "consultant" on the whole SOA thing. What a bunch of gobbly-de-gook: "Process reengineering, business-oriented flexibility, blah, blah ... blah."

Someone is going to have to convince me -- more effectively than they already have -- that this is any different from:

• SAA from the mid-80's
• Client/Server from the early 90's
• The "paperless office" from the mid-late 90's
• The "shining city on the hill" hype of Java when it caught hold in the late 90's
• The breathless projections of "digital convergence"
• The initial projections of ".NET"
• etc.
• etc.
• did I mention, "etc.?"

I'm tired, deep.thought ... tired and not a little bit frightened at becoming obsolete.

I spent last weekend in Michigan, visiting my parents. They're very old, frail, and it's becoming increasingly clear that they'll be counting on me for financial support for the rest of their lives. I have gone 46 years not really thinking about having a "dependent." The convergence of that thought with this crashing wave of new stuff I don't understand has me rattled.