Simple vs. Easy…
In his talk, Rich Hickey takes a conversational yet detailed approach to influencing fellow developers into being simple rather than complex.
Rich argues that easy programming may help in the short term, but will lead to complexity in the future, which will slow down progress. On the other hand, simple programming, although it may be harder to achieve as fast as its counterpart, it will speed development up in the long run, and is thus a better choice.
In other words, Rich argues that putting more thought and time into the code design during the beginning of a project adds value in the long run, particularly in the form of time and cost.
Furthermore, Rich goes a step more in arguing that all languages have several characteristics that enable complexity (which may sometimes be easy for those programmers who are familiar with it). For example, states in C++.
Programmers out there, I recommend you to take a look at this video — it’s ok to skip parts around, but there is a lot of value, so look for it. Rich ends with clear recommendations on making things simple, using simple words like what, how, who, when.
Happy coding.
