simplicity
When does an abstraction help, and when does it hurt? · Why is it harder to simplify than to add?
Less, but better: reduction as the way to make something good, and the argument about when it goes too far.
FilterEveryone, all time149 from 93 people
- PG
Paul Graham quoted
Co-founder of Y Combinator and Viaweb
Their wordsIt can be surprisingly powerful not to stream or even record a talk.
- 9 days earlier
- BD
Brad DeLong quoted
Economics professor at the University of California
Their wordsCuration is thus an inevitable bet on judgment over completeness — you accept that you will miss almost everything, and you invest your scarce attention in a few people whose sense of the common thread you trust.
↗READING: BARRY RITHOLTZ: How I Build My Reading Listsbraddelong.substack.com
- BD
Brad DeLong quoted
Their wordsBarry Ritholtz’s guide to building a reading list is generous, disciplined, and quietly self-defeating — because the better his curation, the more it adds to the very flood it’s meant to tame.
↗READING: BARRY RITHOLTZ: How I Build My Reading Listsbraddelong.substack.com
- HF
Henry Farrell quoted
Professor of international affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS and co-author
Their wordsThe answer is that the metaphor shrinks rather than expands your horizons of the possible, forcing you to focus on the single overwhelming question of what Machine Jesus is going to do as soon as he descends from that gleaming cloud.
- 4 days earlier
- MS
M.G. Siegler quoted
Technology writer of Spyglass
Their wordsIt seems fine to keep coding in a separate area, obviously, but in general, we should have one box per service!
- 3 days earlier
- CC
Chris Coyier quoted
Front-end developer and writer; co-founder of CodePen
Their wordsIt takes some serious getting-used-to in Arc that you don't open multiple windows. You just have the one browser window. It's weird to have multiple windows. It lets you, but it probably shouldn't.
- TL
Tobias Lütke quoted
Co-founder and CEO of Shopify
Their wordsThere's a human uh desire for complex answers which tend to be incorrect.
↗Tobi Lütke: The Skills AI Makes More Valuableyoutube.com 11th of 26 in this recording
- TL
Tobias Lütke quoted
Their wordsYou cannot make things better and better by adding stuff. You can't you must prune.
↗Tobi Lütke: The Skills AI Makes More Valuableyoutube.com 23rd of 26 in this recording
- 1 day earlier
- LR
Lenny Rachitsky quoted
Writer of Lenny's Newsletter and host of Lenny's Podcast
Our readingThe most effective AI bots are narrowly scoped to a single, clearly defined responsibility.
Their wordsThe most useful bots have narrow, clearly defined responsibilities.
↗🎙️ How I AI: How two SpaceXAI designers use Grok Bot to do their jobslennysnewsletter.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- JS
Jason Snell quoted
Technology writer and podcaster
Their wordsHowever, every pixel you expand the selection increases the jeopardy that what's going to be generated is weird or fake.
↗macOS 27 Golden Gate Review: Bridging the Tahoe gapsixcolors.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 1 day earlier
- HN
Haley Nahman quoted
Writer living in Brooklyn and former Man Repeller features director
Their wordsThe market has an incentive to privilege aspects of womanhood that can be named, depicted, and immediately recognized.
↗#282: Movies “for women”haleynahman.substack.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- AS
Anthony Sculimbrene quoted
Lawyer and everyday-carry gear reviewer who publishes scored knife
Our readingObjects that work well, are simple, and durable get used heavily and end up showing wear.
Their wordsThings that work, are simple, and durable, last a long time and get used a lot.
- 12 days earlier
- NJ
Nick Janetakis quoted
Freelance web developer and instructor
Their wordsI have stronger opinions here, I like less choice because it's less surface area to remember.
↗The Real Reason I Like niri and Vimnickjanetakis.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- VB
Vicki Boykis quoted
Machine learning engineer working on recommender systems
Their wordsDeleting code is hard, particularly because it's a thankless task that usually doesn't go on promo packets, which is why we end up shipping hundreds of thousands of lines of sparkle emoji magic wand AI features, but deleting code is silent.
- 6 days earlier
- KJ
Katelyn Jetelina quoted
Epidemiologist; founded Your Local Epidemiologist in March…
Our readingThe specific vaccine brand or formulation matters less than simply getting vaccinated at all.
Their wordsThere are nuances to consider for those seeking maximum protection, but ultimately, the best vaccine is the one you receive.
↗Your guide to fall 2026 vaccinesyourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 1 day earlier
- JB
John Bai quoted
Designer at SpaceXAI in New York working on Grok Bot
Our readingA strong culture of unshipping helps remove complexity and focus on a product's strengths.
Their wordswithin cursor, we have a strong culture of unshipping. And I I'm really glad we do because that helped us remove a lot of the complexity and focus on the strengths of the Grockbot app itself.
↗John Bai - The Grok Bot design journeyyoutube.com 13th of 20 in this recording
- 2 days earlier
- JA
Jen Abel quoted
Co-founder of JJELLYFISH and GM of enterprise sales at State Affairs
Their wordsTime box it to two or three days. Don't make it two weeks.
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 13th of 24 in this recording
- JA
Jen Abel quoted
Our readingNeeding forward deployed engineers because a product is too hard to use on its own is a bad sign.
Their wordsare you using um a forward deployed engineer because your product's so gnarly and hard to hard to do like they can't do it on their own. Um it's a bad sign.
↗84 minutes of enterprise sales alpha | Jen Abelyoutube.com 16th of 24 in this recording
- 2 days earlier
- JC
Josh Collinsworth quoted
Front-end developer and writer on Svelte, Vue
Their wordsFirst: people will always say they want more options. Psychologically, we imagine ourselves to prefer choice, even when we don't actually use it or even want it in practice.
- 5 days earlier
- IS
Ian Silber quoted
Designer who led product design at OpenAI
Their wordsthings will truly become like for billions of users when they don't have to like think about a switch or a mode or anything like that.
↗Chatbots are not the final interface: OpenAI’s Head of Design on what’s next | Ian Silberyoutube.com 17th of 22 in this recording
- 1 day earlier
- IT
Isaiah Taylor quoted
Founder and CEO of Valar Atomics
Their wordsBut the problem of nuclear today is like the Toyota Camry problem, right? Like we don't want to make Lamborghinis. We want to make a very simple, very cheap, very safe reactor that we can make literally tens of thousands of. Um and actually that is going to make the cheapest energy in the world, right?
↗How Nuclear Will Unlock Energy Abundance with Valar Atomics Founder Isaiah Tayloryoutube.com 9th of 18 in this recording
- 1 day earlier
- SK
Susan Kare quoted
Graphic designer and type designer
Their wordsthere's not a technical reason that they couldn't have plaid lunchboxes and shoelaces or be singing a song, but it would probably be more distracting and just take away from that instant recognition that you're aiming for.
↗Susan Kare: Designing Icons & Graphics For the Original Macyoutube.com 7th of 19 in this recording
- SK
Susan Kare quoted
Their wordsBut again, too much detail. It would have had a much longer lifespan if I had just stopped and made it simpler.
↗Susan Kare: Designing Icons & Graphics For the Original Macyoutube.com 10th of 19 in this recording
- 2 days earlier
- VB
Vicki Boykis quoted
Their wordsWe should strive for simplicity. If we can't, it could be because we don't understand the problem ourselves yet enough to compress it.
- 3 days earlier
- AW
Adam Ward quoted
Head of Talent at Cursor
Their wordsThe very best systems thinkers take these things and put them into like very small tactics
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 9th of 30 in this recording
- AW
Adam Ward quoted
Their wordswhen you think about your offer and if you're negotiating, it has to just fit a line of logic.
↗The playbook for building high talent density teams | Adam Ward, Head of Talent at Cursoryoutube.com 22nd of 30 in this recording
- 11 days earlier
- CD
Charlie Deets quoted
Designer at The Browser Company working on Dia
Their wordsif you have these simple practical decisions that are executed at a really high level, I think it gives you a feeling of confidence often with like the experience you're interacting with.
↗Charlie Deets - Designing the internet computeryoutube.com 2nd of 18 in this recording
- CD
Charlie Deets quoted
Their wordsI I can pull things back. I can make it simpler. I can make it more understandable for the user. And yes, I care about making sure that button works exactly right or whatever. And I could have went in in there and fixed it. But if I keep staying like on this end of the equation where I'm thinking in this realm, I'm more novel over there than I am in the execution realm cuz like everyone can kind of execute right now.
↗Charlie Deets - Designing the internet computeryoutube.com 5th of 18 in this recording
- CD
Charlie Deets quoted
Their wordsI think the counterpoint to simple design is that people want less tools a lot of the time if I can do it in notion I'll do it in notion cuz I already use notion
↗Charlie Deets - Designing the internet computeryoutube.com 11th of 18 in this recording
- CD
Charlie Deets quoted
Their wordswe also have this like counter opinion which is like sometimes the obvious solution is the right solution.
↗Charlie Deets - Designing the internet computeryoutube.com 12th of 18 in this recording