Keeping Software Simple Is the Hard Part
Adding is easy. Anyone can bolt on a setting, a tab, a toggle. Saying no is the skill — and it’s the one that keeps an app worth using five years later.
Most apps don’t die from a missing feature. They drown in the ones nobody asked for. Each addition feels harmless on its own. Together they turn a sharp tool into a cluttered drawer.
The cost nobody puts on the roadmap
Every feature is a permanent tax. It has to be designed, tested, supported, explained, and carried forward through every future change. The build is the cheap part. The keeping is what compounds.
I think this has become even more important in times of commoditized AI building. Adding a feature is just a few prompts away, good product management isn’t.
Simple isn’t easy
A simple product is the residue of a hundred decisions to leave things out. It looks effortless precisely because the effort went into restraint instead of surface area.
That’s the whole discipline: do one thing really well, and protect it from everything that wants to make it “more.”