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Cognitive load is what matters

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1455 points nromiun | 1 comments | 30 Aug 25 12:58 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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rowanG077 ◴[30 Aug 25 15:24 UTC] No.45075420[source]▶
It's always interesting that many people who push the cognitive load argument also push for simpler languages. To me once I have learned a language well the features it has don't add to the cognitive load. they become basically second nature. It even has a great benefit, many things that are explicit in simple languages because there is no language support fall away in more complex languages. So more complex languages reduce cognitive load, at least for me.
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1. weiliddat ◴[30 Aug 25 17:31 UTC] No.45076453[source]▶
Exactly, cognitive load is dynamic not static, and you can actually hold many more things in working memory than the oft-repeated 3-7 items (that's more if you're trying memorize and recall unrelated, novel items).

Once you commit a particular concept to long-term memory and it's not "leaky" (you have to think through the internal behavior/implementation details), then now you have more tools and ways to describe a collective bunch of lower-level concepts.

That's the same feeling programmers used to more powerful languages have to write less powerful languages — instead of using 1 concept to describe what you want, now you have to use multiple things. It's only easier if you've not grokked the concept.