Cognitive load is what matters

Love it. Make code accessibility a first-class citizen. Turn the rule books and their principles into guidelines. A smart coder knows to follow rules. A master knows code is meant to be read and develops contextual awareness for when and why to break a rule, or augment it, as the case may be. So, reintroduce judgment and critical thinking in your coding practice. Develop an intuitive feel for the cognitive costs and trade-offs of your decisions. Whether you choose to duplicate or abstract, think of the next person (who sometimes is you in six months).

For those asking why author doesn't come up with their own new rules that can then be followed, this would just be trading a problem for the same problem. Absentmindedly following rules. Writing accessible code, past a few basic guidelines, becomes tacit knowledge. If you write and read code, you'll learn to love some and hate some. You'll also develop a feel for heavy handedness. Author said it best:

> It's not imagined, it's there and we can feel it.

We can feel it. Yes, having to make decisions while coding is an uncomfortable freedom. It requires you to be present. But you can get used to it if you try.

> Make code accessibility a first-class citizen.

This is a good article but the main thing that bugs me about it is that the author completely disregards germane overhead.

Germane overhead is about recognition and practice and, at scale, it matters just as much.

Intrinsic and extraneous overhead is about the information itself and how it’s presented.

Germane overhead is about the receiver so in order to make code accessibility a first-class citizen you can’t ignore it.