Keeping it simple... or not

In recent months I've become astounded, even flabbergasted at the continuous trudge toward complexity and the sheer, if not brazen, nay, arrogant lack of value placed in simplicity.

To my mind this is shooting oneself in the code or foot, up to you. We've all heard conversations approximating to:

"So we can write a script that will convert it and pipe it through, then it can be picked up by docker and that will trigger the rebuild, which will then generate the intermediary code, just before digital pixies corrupt the file and steal the code, character by character, only to flush them down the toilet of continuous integration."

"Yeah, sound great!"

My fellow programmers and many managers are, of course, aware of principles like KISS (Keep It Stupid Simple) or (Keep It Simple, Stupid) but, alas, I have yet to see evidence of this in practice. Further more, I'd suggest adding another principle. The "DWRNTNSDWNI" principle (Do We Really Need This, No Seriously, Do We Need It?

It feels like this topic is very much related to the idea that more is better. This probably works with money (and if you're greedy), but not with application features.

Apparently, most people, if asked to improve a system, will add to it, rather than take something away, even if removing something would make more sense. I'm quiet confidant that is how we have ended up with these lumbering mega systems, that are ironically, simply unfathomable.

"What on middle earth can we do about this?" I hear you ask with bated breath on the edge of your seat.

Well, I'm glad you asked. Frankly, I have no idea, it feels like complexity is inevitable. But, nevertheless one should endeavour to genuinely simplify everything, get rid of the fluff!

So please, please ask DWRNTNSDWNI