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Re:Ask HN: How do you deal with complexity in general? by segmondy on Sunday June 10, 2018 @08:50PM (#17280979)
By understanding it. Complexity will manifest if the software is complex enough, but where?

You can have code that's easy to read and complicated to change. Or you can have code that's complicated to read and understand but easier to change. Perhaps it's easy to read, and change but complicated to scale? I like to shove the complexity into areas I don't care about. If I'm building a system that doesn't need scale, I'll take readability and easy to update over scalability. It's a balancing act.

Re:Ask HN: How do you deal with complexity in general? by tmaly on Monday June 11, 2018 @09:43AM (#17284091)
I came across this post by Kent Beck the other day on dealing with complexity. I think the TDD method definitely helps break it down into digestible chunks.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/kent-beck/one-bite-at-a-time-...

Re:Ask HN: How do you deal with complexity in general? by m0llusk on Tuesday June 12, 2018 @12:17PM (#17294757)
Make lists. Try multiple approaches, especially with the observation and framing that must precede decisions and actions.
Re:Ask HN: How do you deal with complexity in general? by jkantz on Saturday June 09, 2018 @08:56PM (#17275846)
Lots of good advice on this topic here: https://homepage.cs.uri.edu/~thenry/resources/unix_art/ch04s...

Especially further in on the topic of how there's a sweet spot for total logical lines of code and manageable complexity.

Re:Ask HN: How do you deal with complexity in general? by LarryMade2 on Monday June 11, 2018 @10:37AM (#17284570)
I think good part of complexity is not understanding something as much as you could.

On projects Ive worked with for a long time they don't seem as complex as when I started them, And when I refactor or rewrite, I am usually taking a more streamlined approach as I now understand the what it is I am actually tracking.

Re:Ask HN: How do you deal with complexity in general? by tonyedgecombe on Sunday June 10, 2018 @02:07PM (#17279341)
Pick off the smallest piece that can do something useful then iterate from there.
Re:Ask HN: How do you deal with complexity in general? by thecupisblue on Sunday June 10, 2018 @07:32AM (#17277633)
Do an churn vs complexity analysis, talk to devs who work on the project, find those areas, write unit tests, refactor into simpler, smaller units.
Re:Ask HN: How do you deal with complexity in general? by mabynogy on Sunday June 10, 2018 @01:51PM (#17279236)
Reduce the problem to something simpler. If it's a project for someone else I'll do my best to change his mind about his problem.