Simplicity

Simplicity is not the absence of complexity but the result of working through it.

The easy kind

There's a cheap simplicity that comes from not thinking things through. It's simple because it ignores edge cases, because it hasn't encountered the hard problems yet.

This kind of simplicity breaks down as soon as it meets reality.

The hard kind

Real simplicity comes from deeply understanding a problem and finding the essence. It means making the right tradeoffs, often painfully. It means saying no to features that would help some users but confuse others.

This kind of simplicity is stable. It holds up under pressure because it was designed with pressure in mind.

Getting there

Start complex if you need to. Get the thing working first. Then ruthlessly simplify. Ask of every element: does this need to exist? Does it earn its complexity?

The goal is not minimalism for its own sake but clarity. Every element should have a purpose that the user can understand.