Overengineering Memes

Posts tagged with Overengineering

Still Adding One More Feature

Still Adding One More Feature
You know that moment when you get hit with a brilliant new project idea and your brain goes "this is simple, I'll knock it out in 2 days max"? Fast forward one month and your codebase looks like someone threw a box of cables into a blender. That's because you couldn't help yourself—just one more feature, just one more "quick improvement," just one more "while I'm at it" moment. The real tragedy? You're probably still not done, and that tangled mess of dependencies, edge cases, and "temporary" solutions has become your new reality. The 2-day project is now your magnum opus of technical debt. But hey, at least it has that one feature literally nobody asked for but you knew would be cool.

Still Adding One More Feature

Still Adding One More Feature
You know that side project you started with pure intentions and a clean architecture? Yeah, that one. You told yourself it'd take 2 days max—just a simple MVP to validate the idea. Fast forward one month and your codebase looks like someone tried to untangle headphones in a tornado. Each "small feature" brought three dependencies, two refactors, and one existential crisis about whether you should've just used a monorepo. The real tragedy? You're still not done. There's always just one more feature before you can ship. Authentication can wait, but dark mode? Absolutely critical. The cycle continues until your "weekend project" becomes a legacy system you're too emotionally invested to abandon. Pro tip: That tangled mess of cables is actually a more organized system than your project's dependency graph at this point.

Are You Really Going To Ever Change Your Database

Are You Really Going To Ever Change Your Database
So you're building your app and you're like "I'll use an ORM for database abstraction so I can switch databases later!" Sure, Jan. Sure you will. The brutal truth? Both the galaxy-brain geniuses writing raw SQL and the smooth-brain rebels who also write raw SQL have figured out what the ORM evangelists refuse to admit: you're NEVER switching databases . That Postgres instance you spun up on day one? That's your ride-or-die until the heat death of the universe. Meanwhile, the "average" developers are stuck in the middle with their ORMs, adding layers of abstraction for a migration that'll never happen, debugging cryptic ORM-generated queries, and pretending they're writing "portable" code. Spoiler alert: the only thing you're porting is technical debt. The real power move? Just admit you're married to your database and write those beautiful, optimized raw queries without shame. Your future self will thank you when you're not deciphering what monstrosity your ORM generated at 3 AM.

Me Making My RPG Game

Me Making My RPG Game
You know you've entered true game dev hell when you spend 6 hours architecting a combat system with seventeen nested state machines, custom event buses, and a dependency injection framework that would make enterprise Java developers weep with pride—all because you refused to watch a single tutorial. The code is so convoluted that only you can understand it, and even that's questionable after a coffee break. But hey, at least it's YOUR spaghetti code, crafted with the stubborn determination of someone who thinks "best practices" are just suggestions for people who lack vision. The real kicker? It probably does the exact same thing a simple switch statement would've done, but with 400% more architectural "elegance."

Only Setup You Need To Search For Cat Videos

Only Setup You Need To Search For Cat Videos
Someone built a literal Mac Mini data center just to browse the internet. That's right—dozens of Mac Minis, meticulously cabled and racked like they're running a Fortune 500 company's infrastructure, when in reality they're probably just streaming YouTube. The joke here is the absolutely insane overkill of creating a server farm with what appears to be 40+ Mac Minis (each costing a cool $600-$2000) for the most mundane task imaginable: watching cat videos. It's like hiring a NASA engineer to microwave your burrito. The cable management is actually pretty clean though, not gonna lie. Someone really said "if I'm going to waste an absurd amount of money on unnecessary hardware, I'm at least going to make it look professional." Respect the commitment to the bit, even if your electricity bill now rivals a small country's GDP.

Send Email Method As A Framework

Send Email Method As A Framework
You know you've made it as a senior dev when you can turn a simple sendEmail() function into an architectural masterpiece featuring AbstractEmailFactoryProviderInterface, EmailStrategyPattern, and probably a few design patterns that don't even exist yet. Why write 10 lines when you can write 10 files? The junior dev just wanted to send a password reset email, but now they need to understand dependency injection, IoC containers, and the philosophical implications of SOLID principles just to change the subject line. Nothing screams "enterprise-ready" quite like wrapping basic functionality in enough layers that you need a PhD to trace the call stack. Meanwhile, the production server is still running that one-liner PHP script from 2009 that actually works.

AWS And Its Complicated Shit Needs To Die

AWS And Its Complicated Shit Needs To Die
You know a system is overengineered when "just authenticate" requires a flowchart that looks like a Rube Goldberg machine designed by someone who hates humanity. Normal auth: hand over credentials, get token, done. Simple. Elegant. Works. AWS IAM: Create a user. No wait, create a policy first. Actually, create a role. Now assume that role. But first, authenticate with an assumed role. Oh, and calculate a quadruple-nested HMAC signature using AWS4, your secret key, a timestamp that better be formatted EXACTLY right (good luck with timezones), the region, the service name, and probably your firstborn's social security number. Then pray you didn't mess up the date format because AWS will reject your request with a cryptic error message at 3 AM. Fun fact: AWS Signature Version 4 requires you to create a "canonical request" by hashing your request, then create a "string to sign" by hashing that hash, then calculate the signature by... you guessed it, more hashing. It's hashes all the way down. Security through obscurity? Nah, security through making developers cry. IAM stands for "I Absolutely Miserable" at this point.

Nerds Are Built Different

Nerds Are Built Different
Government cybersecurity out here flexing like they're ready to take on any threat, batting away script kiddies like flies at a picnic. Meanwhile, some random homelabber who spent their weekend setting up a Raspberry Pi cluster and learning Kubernetes for fun has achieved FINAL FORM and ascended to godhood. The homelabber's cybersecurity setup is so absurdly overpowered it makes government infrastructure look like a toy. We're talking VLANs, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, zero-trust architecture, and probably a custom-compiled kernel because why not. All protecting... what exactly? Their Plex server and a collection of Linux ISOs? The dedication is absolutely unhinged and we love it. Turns out when you're spending your own money and actually care about learning, you build Fort Knox. When it's a government contract with the lowest bidder... well, you get Windows XP running critical infrastructure in 2024.

I Had To Guys I Had To

I Had To Guys I Had To
So someone installed an entire operating system on their car's infotainment system and the specs read like a Pentium II from 1998. Single-core processor, "random overclocks" (which is code for "it thermal throttles whenever it feels like it"), zero multitasking capability, and it literally crashes into sleep mode. The cat's expression says it all. That perfect mix of pride and "I know this is terrible but I regret nothing." Running a full desktop OS on hardware that can barely handle a calculator app is peak engineer energy. Your car now boots slower than it accelerates. The "orange car OS" is likely a reference to installing Linux (probably Ubuntu or some custom distro) on automotive hardware that was never meant to do anything more complex than display a backup camera. Godspeed to whoever has to wait 45 seconds for their AC controls to load.

More Code = More Better

More Code = More Better
Behold, the evolution of a developer's brain slowly melting into absolute chaos! We start with the innocent x = 10 and somehow end up at a do-while loop that generates random numbers until the universe accidentally spits out 10. Because why use one line when you can gamble with the RNG gods and potentially loop until the heat death of the universe? The "Better" version adding ten ones together is giving strong "I get paid by lines of code" energy. The "Good" version with a backwards for loop that decrements from 0 is just... *chef's kiss* of unnecessary complexity. But the "Pro" move? That's weaponized inefficiency right there. Nothing screams senior developer quite like turning a constant assignment into a probability problem that could theoretically run forever. Your CPU will LOVE you!

There Is Also Some Div Centring

There Is Also Some Div Centring
You spend years learning design patterns, data structures, algorithms, and architectural paradigms. You master REST, GraphQL, microservices, event-driven systems. You debate tabs vs spaces with religious fervor. Then one day you realize your entire career boils down to: take data from point A, send it to point B via HTTP. That's it. That's the whole job. Just fancy plumbing with extra steps and a lot of YAML files. The "always has been" meme format hits different when you realize the astronaut with the gun represents your senior dev who's been trying to tell you this for years while you were busy overengineering everything with 47 microservices.

When You Get Paid By Lines Of Code

When You Get Paid By Lines Of Code
The most elegant solution: return user || null; The solution when your manager mentions "performance bonuses tied to code output metrics": whatever this monstrosity is. Somewhere, a junior dev is wondering why their PR keeps getting rejected while the tech debt architect who wrote this garbage is getting promoted.