Simplicity takes work

While putting together yet another presentation, I was reminded once again: making 30 slides is easy, making 15 is hard, and fitting everything onto one slide is nearly impossible.

So many projects and directions in flight, so much done, and all of it important, all of it worth mentioning. But is it really all important? How many slides does it take to convey a strategy? One. And once the team is aligned and in sync, zero.

If you keep only what carries the idea forward rather than what merely sounds good, you get:

We’re launching A for B in order to achieve C

The art of simplifying is the core skill of any manager or senior engineer. Identify what matters, bring it into focus, then pause and let it land. Everything else is noise.

The same goes for engineering, by the way. Coming up with a dozen services and a couple dozen methods, then distributing them neatly across layers, isn’t hard. Solving the problem as simply as possible is what sets true senior engineers apart.

The best PRs are the ones that delete more than they add while still bringing us closer to our vision for the future.