Back in 1994 a “hello world” webpage was about twice the size of the content in code and could be written in any editor. With WP, it’s a 5 minute install and data base and a theme, “hello world” in react requires 80 MByte of JS script tools being processed.

I think we have to realize that tooling complexity, for many developers, isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. It’s fun, but also a way of keeping what developers do “magic”, and pricy. And of course, there are situations where it’s not just preferences but technologically indicated.

And WordPress does have a strategic problem on that front to the extent that keeping non-tech users and low-tech web designers happy with page/themebuilders that use the database, is making it harder for developers to sell complex backend theming services. Which in turn makes them root for different tech stacks. Quite understandably. Which in turn creates an eco system around it.

But that ecosystem also has a strategic problem: it cannot get much simpler, because if it does, it loses its developer friendliness which is, again, based on its complexity.

And that probably means that both worlds will find different corners and co-exist rather peacefully, potentially even by co-operating. And I’m pretty sure Matt Mullenweg knows that very well. Just as the JAMstackers…