KISS

It stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. A real engineering principle, from a Navy designer in the 1960s, and the "stupid" is aimed at the solution, not at you.

Here's the version I wish someone had told me earlier: the clever solution is the one that bites you.

You're building something and two paths show up. One is obvious and a little boring. The other is slick, compact, the kind of thing that makes you feel smart for thinking of it. The clever one feels better in the moment. It's also the one nobody can read later, including the person who wrote it.

And that person is usually you, six months from now, with zero memory of what past-you was thinking.

The simple version wins because you can still understand it later. That's the whole game. Code isn't impressive because it's hard to read. It's impressive because it works and the next person doesn't have to decode it like a riddle.

Think of it like writing directions to your house.

• The clever version: "Take the third left after the landmark that locals call the old mill, unless it's a Tuesday, in which case the road's closed and you'll want the back route."
• The simple version: "Turn left at the gas station. We're the blue house."

Both get someone there today. Only one of them gets a stranger there at night, in the rain, when you're not around to answer your phone.

This matters double when you're building with AI, because AI will absolutely hand you the clever version if you let it. Ask for something and it'll happily produce a dense, "smart" chunk of code that technically works. So make simple the thing you actually ask for:

1. Say it out loud in your prompt. Add "keep it simple and readable, no clever tricks" to the request. The AI optimizes for what you ask. Ask for boring.

2. Read it back before you accept it. If you can't follow what the code is doing in plain English, that's not a you problem. That's a sign it's too clever. Tell the AI to redo it simpler.

3. Pick the version you could explain to a friend. If you'd have to say "honestly I'm not totally sure how this part works," delete that part.

The rule of thumb: when two solutions both work, take the one that's easier to understand, not the one that's shorter or slicker.

Clever is a tax you pay later, with interest. The simple, almost boring version is the one you'll read in six months and still get instantly.

When in doubt, do the obvious thing.