The Moment I Realized Something Was Wrong
I spent three hours designing a “scalable” solution for a feature that would maybe get 100 users. Built a custom caching layer. Created an elaborate state management system. Added metrics and monitoring everywhere.
It took two weeks to ship. The feature worked fine. Nobody noticed any of the extra work I put in.
That was the moment I started questioning everything I was doing.
What Over-Engineering Actually Looks Like
It’s not always obvious. Sometimes it’s:
- Building a plugin system when you need one implementation
- Adding database migrations for a simple script
- Setting up microservices architecture for a monolith would work
- Creating custom solutions when libraries exist
- Future-proofing for requirements that never come
The worst part? We do this because it feels productive. It feels like we’re being professional. Like we’re doing it right.
What I Learned
Simple code is harder to write than complex code. It takes more thought to figure out the minimal solution that actually works.
YAGNI is real, but hard to apply. Every time I ignored it, I regretted it later. Every time I followed it, the code was easier to change when requirements shifted.
Shipping beats perfect. A simple solution in production teaches you more than a perfect solution on your local machine.
The Simple Framework I Use Now
Before I build anything, I ask:
- What happens if this is totally wrong in 6 months?
- Could I replace this with something simpler if needed?
- What’s the minimum needed to validate this works?
- Who actually cares about this complexity?
Most of the time, the answer is: build simple, refactor when needed.
Final Thought
The best code I’ve written wasn’t the most clever. It was the stuff that was easy to understand, easy to change, and easy to delete when it wasn’t needed anymore.
Still learning this. Every day.