Simplify, simplify
We spent a fantastic afternoon last weekend at Walden Pond in Concord. A more calming place it is difficult to imagine. You could sit in the woods for hours, dipping your feet in the cool water, admiring the lush greenery. Fish come up to you and shimmer in the clear pond.
In his book "Walden," Thoreau wrote:
Our life is frittered away by detail... Simplify, simplify!
There's a lesson for all of us, nowhere more so than in computers and automation.
To get quick results, we blindly reuse ready-made libraries that we half understand. We suffer through layers and layers of complexity that come back to bite us when we have to maintain and support our house of cards. But again and again, the systems that endure and prove their worth tend to be the simple ones, the ones that do one thing and do it well. Even if they require a little more patience and work, the result is worth it.