The Great Pyramids took decades to build. It was a monumental feat of human ingenuity and collaboration. Today, we software developers erect our own pyramids each day - not from stone, but from code. Yet despite far more advanced tools, these systems don’t always make the experience better. So why, when KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) is a well-known mantra, do we keep gravitating toward complexity?
Marketing > Simplicity
Sell me this pen: ✎
What? You don’t know how? Okay, instead, sell me this Penzilla - a pen that can erase, write in different colors, play music, dial 911, act as a radio antenna, and even help you cheat on your homework.
In the software world, how would you sell a competitor to the cat command? Sounds insane, right? It’s so simple - why would anyone compete with it, let alone build an alternative? (Let’s pretend Rust coreutils don’t exist.)
But what if instead of a cat competitor, it was catzilla - a tool that could watch your files, hop through portals, and jump across networks? Now that’s marketable! Still, nobody would take you seriously. Why? Because cat just works, and it’s highly unlikely anyone will ever need anything else (just like Penzilla).
However, if catzilla were hyped from every corner of the internet, with a CatConf coming next month, you’d at least be curious to try it. Social proof makes you take it seriously. Even if it’s just a gimmick, it’s still a gimmick with users.
Complexity also signals effort, expertise, and exclusivity. If you struggle to understand it, your brain rewards you with awe: “Wow, this must be really smart,” you think - even if a simpler solution would work just as well.
Marketers, engineers, and startups all exploit this trick. The more layers, the fancier the terminology, the more “premium” it feels. Complexity turns into a status symbol rather than a necessity.
What is inside the Great Pyramids?
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