Principle
Simplicity is achieved, not chosen
The simple version is almost always the third or fourth version, not the first.
- 2025
The first version of a thing tends to be either too simple — because the real complexity has not yet been understood — or too complex — because every fear has been encoded into the design.
The simple version is almost always the third or fourth version: the one made after the problem has been seen clearly enough that you can decide which complexity is essential and which was only a worry. Simplicity is the result of revision under understanding.
See in context Open in the atlas