What a lot of comments here are missing is that complexifiers can be turned into simplifiers. The key realization is that they are bored by the assigned work an

What a lot of comments here are missing is that complexifiers can be turned into simplifiers. The key realization is that they are bored by the assigned work and want to do something challenging, not that they want things to be complex per-se. There is a hierarchy of code quality by difficulty, and it takes increasing smarts to ascend the ladder here: 1. Simple but bad code. - the developer doesn't understand the problem and just writes simple straightforward and wrong code 2. Complex bad code - the developer understands the problem and tries to solve it, but is just making everything worse. 3. Complex good code[0] - the developer solves the problem convincingly, but in a complicated way that perhaps only they understand. 4. Simple good code - the developer realizes a simpler way they could solve the same problem and writes it in a way that allows others on the team to understand and maintain it. Your developers are currently at a 3, and you need to push them to ascend to 4. If you get your smart devs using their brains to remove complexity from your system with stunningly clever simplifications, everyone will be better off. And it can't be faked, it's truly difficult to solve hard problems with simple code. [0] "I object! Complex good code is an oxymoron!" Listen, for the sake of this comment, "good code" means all other measures of quality other than complexity. Efficiency, solving all problem constraints, well commented, etc.