---
title: Prioritize Clarity Over Cleverness
impact: HIGH
impactDescription: Reduces cognitive load and improves maintainability
tags: quality, simplicity, readability
---

## Prioritize Clarity Over Cleverness

**Impact: HIGH**

The goal is code that is easy to read and understand quickly, not elegant complexity. Simple systems reduce the cognitive load for every engineer.

**Questions to ask yourself:**
- Am I actually solving the problem at hand?
- Am I thinking too much about possible future use cases?
- Have I considered at least 1 other alternative for solving this? How does it compare?

**Incorrect (clever but hard to understand):**

```typescript
// Clever one-liner that's hard to parse
const result = data.reduce((a, b) => ({...a, [b.id]: (a[b.id] || []).concat(b)}), {});
```

**Correct (clear and readable):**

```typescript
// Clear, step-by-step approach
const groupedById: Record<string, Item[]> = {};

for (const item of data) {
  if (!groupedById[item.id]) {
    groupedById[item.id] = [];
  }
  groupedById[item.id].push(item);
}
```

**Important note:**
Simple doesn't mean lacking in features. Just because our goal is to create simple systems, this doesn't mean they should feel anemic and lacking obvious functionality.

Reference: [Cal.diy Engineering Blog](https://cal.com/blog/engineering-in-2026-and-beyond)