The best way to reach simplicity is to reduce, reduce, and reduce again.

• Reduction leads to simplicity. It sounds intuitive, but in a world that rewards more, choosing less is a radical act of engineering.
• The most effective way to reach simplicity is through a relentless cycle: reduce, reduce, and reduce again.
• In philosophy and science, this is known as Occam’s Razor (or the Law of Parsimony). Formally, it states that “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.” In our context, this means if you have two solutions that provide the same result, the simpler one is almost always the better one.
• Whether it is a software architectural design, your codebase, or your organizational processes: simple solutions are inherently more sustainable.
• The reasons for this aren't just technical; they are biological.
  • Complexity increases Cognitive Load: the total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory. More moving parts make it harder for a human to maintain a mental model of the system.
  • Simplicity respects the limits of human cognition. By reducing moving parts, we make the system easier to debug, support, and evolve.
• If a process is too complex, every additional step acts as a potential point of failure. In reliability engineering, we look at Serial System Reliability.
• If you have a 10-step process and each step has a 99% success rate, your total reliability is lower than a 5-step process with those same margins. By moving from 10 steps to 5, you aren't just “cleaning up”, you are mathematically halving your surface area for risk. Fewer steps mean fewer “unknown unknowns”.
• But how do we actually get to 5 steps from 10? We use a method called First Principles Thinking.
• Instead of iterating on what exists, you deconstruct the process to its fundamental truths. You ask: “What is non-negotiable for this output?”
  1. Start by reducing to 9 steps by eliminating the redundant.
  2. Move to 8, then 7.
  3. Continue until you have distilled the process down to its “functional marrow.”
• As legendary aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry famously said: “Perfection is attained, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
• The same principle applies to your codebase. Every line of code is a liability. It requires testing, it requires reading, and it potentially hides a bug.
• The most mature move a developer can make isn't writing a complex algorithm, it’s deleting 100 lines of code while keeping the functionality intact.
• Remember: The best code is the code you don't have to write, or the code you are able to delete.
• By reducing the number of parts in your system or process, you are making it stronger, not weaker, because there will be less parts to fail.
• Reduce without mercy.

References:

What is Occam’s Razor? - https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/occam-s-razor

Cognitive Load in Software Engineering - https://ministryofprogramming.com/blog/cognitive-load-in-software-engineering

What is First Principles Thinking? - https://fs.blog/first-principles/

Perfection, Good Design, and the Art of Both - https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2018/09/17/perfection-good-design-and-the-art-of-both

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