Cognitive Load: The Silent Killer in Software Development

This article explores the critical role of cognitive load in software development. High cognitive load leads to decreased efficiency and increased bugs. It analyzes common causes of high cognitive load, such as complex code logic, excessive inheritance, too many shallow modules and microservices, and unnecessary abstraction layers. The author advocates for minimizing cognitive load by using meaningful variable names, early returns, composition over inheritance, and creating fewer but deeper modules to simplify code, thus improving readability and maintainability. The article also critiques the drawbacks of over-emphasizing design patterns and architectures, stressing that simpler, straightforward solutions are often more effective.