The missing component in parent's description is the imperfectness of abstraction. A good abstraction, written for and suited to the task at hand, adds little

The missing component in parent's description is the imperfectness of abstraction. A good abstraction, written for and suited to the task at hand, adds little complexity. Reusing a previous abstraction, written for a slightly different purpose, incurs some complexity. Having to use an abstraction, inappropriate for the purpose, incurs substantial complexity. This results in three outcomes respectively: (1) increased productivity, (2) stable productivity, (3) decreased productivity. Most of programming, in my experience, has been figuring out which one of those roads you're on, and when to eat the cost of switching to another.