Flexibility isn't free: the complexity you remove from your library just moves
Franc0Fernand0 · x · 2026-10-30
Core argument from issue #197 of the Polymathic Engineer: every time you make your library more flexible, somebody pays for it — often not you. Hide a dependency behind an interface and all clients must implement it; add hooks and you're running code you don't control, which can throw or block your thread, and even wrapped in try-catch on a thread pool you still wait for the slowest one. Complexity doesn't disappear; you only choose where it goes — clients, a thread pool, or your latency. The piece also covers the thread execution model of extension points (synchronous calls hurt SLA; async means maintaining a pool) and argues extension points should emerge from evidence, not guesses.
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