Less is More

Good design is about simplification. Especially in software design. Focus on doing one thing very well. Know what product you are and which market niche you fill. Don't step outside that niche for that particular product. If a need arises and resources exist to fill a new niche, create a new product for that particular category.

Too much bad software tries to be everything to everyone. Feature creep without a crisp vision of market categories can produce products with tons of features and diffused focus. Ultimately we pay the price in technical debt, huge test matrices and long maintenance release cycles.

This notion of simplicity can be carried into all dimensions. We should stop trying to do so much and only do the things that matter. Easier said than done.

What Matters

One nice thing about getting older (one of the few things :-)) is that I have much less interest in things that don't matter that much. So, I don't spend a lot of time chasing things that burn time and money. But I do spend time and money on things that matter to me. More simplification and focus is calming.

What matters to me now? In no specfic order I'd say music, making a difference through my career, family/friend relationships, great ideas, health, financial independence, sex, mental clarity, spiritual search, seeing more of the world.

Maybe that's about it. Activities that enhance those things pretty much take up my time these days. Now that I wrote the list, it seems longer than I expected, cause it doesn't seem like I do as many different things as I did in the past. But, that's probably enough as I seem to stay busy most of the time with just doing the next thing.