Acronyms FTW! Car enthusiasts might now think of BMW, but software developers should think of KISS and YAGNI.

“Keep it simple, stupid” should remind us that the simple solution will always beat the overengineered solution. The reasons why this is true are almost endless. And they might be easier to understand when looking at the opposite: complex code.

• Complex code is a perfect hiding place for mistakes.
• Complex code is hard to understand, for your coworkers and yourself.
• Complex code cannot easily be extended.
• Complex code cannot be reused. And, last but certainly not least, writing complex code will cause your teammates to brand you as an outlaw.When a more straightforward solution seems sufficient right now, you should always aim for it.

“Writing complex code will cause your teammates to brand you as an outlaw.”

When you realise that your solution isn’t essential at all, you should drop it. This is what YAGNI is about – “You ain’t gonna need it” reminds us to stay modest when planning the volume and scope of our implementations. Will users need this feature? Will they need this option within a feature? These questions, of course, will translate to our code: will we need that class/ module/routine?