Intentional Code - Minimalism in a World of Dogmatic Design
summary
Argues for ruthless intentionality in code: every character matters and style rules don’t replace thought. Shows concrete fixes — consolidating 13 C# projects and ~64 build pipelines into one deployable app cuts a 20‑minute build problem down in about 10 days, and choosing to write a 30‑line static site generator replaces four hours of evaluating fragile tools. Uses the deep vs shallow module test and the heuristic less moving parts to decide when to collocate vs extract, aiming for deep modules that contain a whole problem space.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00The state of software design
- 3:24Beyond design patterns
- 7:18Software as literature
- 11:56Intentionality in coding
- 15:19Communication and cohesion
- 21:01Evolutionary design
- 26:42The cost of over-engineering
- 33:05Managing system complexity
- 36:15Defining technical complexity
- 41:53Deep vs. shallow modules
- 44:44Contextual decision making
- 48:21Testing design quality
- 50:39Reflective practice
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