Software development topics I've changed my mind on

How does

> There is no pride in managing or understanding complexity

interact with

> If I think something is easy, that's a sure sign I don't understand it.

? Is it implying that you must understand the irreducible complexity, but mustn't take pride in that understanding? Or is "difficult" the opposite of "easy" here, rather than "complex?"

Both easy and difficult problems can have simple or complex solutions. Two different axes of measurement.

Most problems in software seem to end up being harder than they look, so if I think something is easy I have to suspect I've missed something.

Most solutions in software end up being more complicated than they needed to be, because we don't have the hindsight to realise that until after we've done it and our managers are demanding the next thing.

It's saying you don't need to be proud of your app that has multiple layers of abstractions to be immune to every possible change. There are hard problems, but the most complex solution is rarely good or best.

I think when you first start out as a programmer you’re impressed by complexity and complex solutions

But once you’re more experienced you realize complexity is arbitrary and anyone can make things more complex

I'd argue that's a poor way to say that, because "managing" complexity tends to mean "taming" or dealing with complexity in a good way.

Sure, but that's not really what the quote says, it doesn't talk about making things more complicated than they really are, it just talks about "complexity."