Good poems give you clear meaning now, and deep meaning later.
I think probably great code is like that, too. It’s clear in how it addresses the immediate needs, but it’s deep in how it sets up addressing later, subtler, or less proximal needs.
Git itself comes to mind. At the basic level, it’s super straightforward: you have diffs, you put them in a row, that’s a branch. Easy. Clear.
Then you want to do something weird, and lo and behold, you can. The “cleverness” - maybe call it the “clever simplicity” - that it’s built out of makes it possible, and “easy”. The deep part of the poem, that you didn’t need to understand in the beginning, starts becoming apparent and meaningful.
Good poems give you clear meaning now, and deep meaning later.
I think probably great code is like that, too. It’s clear in how it addresses the immediate needs, but it’s deep in how it sets up addressing later, subtler, or less proximal needs.
Git itself comes to mind. At the basic level, it’s super straightforward: you have diffs, you put them in a row, that’s a branch. Easy. Clear.
Then you want to do something weird, and lo and behold, you can. The “cleverness” - maybe call it the “clever simplicity” - that it’s built out of makes it possible, and “easy”. The deep part of the poem, that you didn’t need to understand in the beginning, starts becoming apparent and meaningful.