Top 3: why LinkedIn is so cringe, best books on managing software complexity and how overengineering can kill your product

Hello my friends.

Here's what I picked this week, enjoy!

1. Overengineering can kill your product​

TL;DR: How overengineering can kill your product:

1. overengineering adds unnecessary complexity
2. it increases development costs
3. it reduces the speed of iterations
4. and it all leads to the fact that the product fails to find its product-market fit in a round of investment and then dies

"Alright, so how do I avoid overengineering?"

You can’t :)

First of all, it’s normal.

Second, it's impossible. Because “complex" and "simple" is a duality. One does not exist without the other.

But if you are asking me to give you advice, I would advise you to remember these three things:

• If the answer to the question “Why do I want to add this to the codebase?” is “Just in case I might need it in the future,” then don’t add it.
• YAGNI (You are not going to need it) and KISS (Keep it simple stupid)
• The golden phrase “solve problems as they arise”

2. Ask HN: Best books on managing software complexity?​

TL;DR: A list of books and tips on how to reduce the complexity of the system.

The most frequently mentioned books:

• “Read all the books by Taiichi Ohno”
• ​A philosophy of software design by John K Ousterhou [read it myself, great one!]

3. Why is LinkedIn so cringe?​

TL;DR: Hilarious take on why the LinkedIn feed is so cringe.

I don't know what your feed looks like, but mine looks like motivational pages from Instagram mixed with "congratulate me! I worked at X for X years, I'm so happy and excited" and some ridiculous memes.

Now I understand why.

LinkedIn business model and algorithms stimulate such content. And $10B+ of revenue per year is good proof that such content is needed there.

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That's all for this week, take care and have a great one!

– Nick