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Cognitive load is what matters

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1457 points nromiun | 3 comments | 30 Aug 25 12:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.746s | source
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semiinfinitely ◴[30 Aug 25 16:54 UTC] No.45076081[source]▶
The ability to create code that imposes low cognitive load on others not only is a rare and difficult skill to cultivate- it takes active effort and persistence to do even for someone who already has the ability and motivation. I think fundamentally the developer is computing a mental compression of the core ideas - distilling them to their essence - and then making sure that the code exposes only the minimum essential complexity of those ideas. not easy and rare to see in practice
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bombela ◴[30 Aug 25 17:07 UTC] No.45076232[source]▶
And if you do it really well, people think it must have been such an easy problem to solve all along. Since everything always appears so obvious in insight.

While the castle of cards of unfathomable complexity is praised for visibly hard work and celebrated with promotions.

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an0malous ◴[30 Aug 25 18:20 UTC] No.45076869[source]▶
“When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all”
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1. goalieca ◴[30 Aug 25 22:57 UTC] No.45078730[source]▶
This is bad for promotions. You have to make grand efforts with impacts of saving things that clearly need saving.
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2. maccard ◴[31 Aug 25 00:55 UTC] No.45079385[source]▶
There’s more than one way to get promoted. Being the common factor among projects that succeed is a really really good one, and IME it’s far more common to find people promoted after one successful project than it is to a “noisy Nancy” be promoted.
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3. folkhack ◴[31 Aug 25 04:22 UTC] No.45080356[source]▶
And, furthermore - being a "noisy Nancy" is often a bad move for your career, socially. As I age, I realize it's more important to get along in most corporate/professional settings than it is to be the person fixing things.

All work represents a social entity (person/persons) and when you're the one calling out issues, pushing for proactive measures, and pushing against bad practices/complexity you're typically taking issue with _someone's_ work along the way. This is often seen as a "squeaky wheel" or "noisy Nancy" - or hell, outright antisocial. Most of the time it is not in your best interest to be this person.

The people who keep their nose down + mouth shut, those who prioritize marketing their work, and the sycophants are the ones who have longevity and upward trajectory - this is corporate America work culture.