Top Most Managing Complexity

I was once confronted by a well meaning tech lead who predicted a performance issue and was "enhancing" the design to circumvent the issue.

After many years in this field I find it interesting that even very talented developers feel the need to fall prey to one of the oldest anti-patterns: premature optimization.

When I requested justification I discovered he had a "gut" feel this operation would take too long. No proof of concept had been done, no estimated timings, just the perception it would take "too long".

For all I know he could be correct. But years of development have taught me to resist the urge and keep it simple. Don't complicate designs until you know you have a real problem.

My experience is that the vast majority of perceived performance issues never materialize. Assuming a well-designed architecture, simple designs perform well in the vast majority of cases.

Keeping the design simple and focusing on performance enhancements when they become necessary allows developers to focus their efforts on real problems, rather than perceived issues.

Don't design in complexity. Save it for when you really need it.