Simple Versus Easy in Programming
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provided sources center on Rich Hickey's "Simple Made Easy" talk, which meticulously distinguishes between simple (objective, meaning "one-fold" or unentangled) and easy (subjective, meaning "near-at-hand" or familiar). Hickey argues that simplicity is a prerequisite for reliability in software and that developers often mistakenly prioritize the easy path, which frequently introduces incidental complexity or entanglement—a phenomenon he calls complecting. The sources contrast common programming constructs, showing how complex ones like mutable state, objects, and inheritance tightly couple concerns, advocating instead for simpler alternatives such as values, pure functions, polymorphism, and declarative data manipulation to build robust, maintainable systems. Ultimately, the material encourages programmers to consciously choose simplicity in design, even if it feels harder initially, to achieve long-term quality.
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