I apply this in a different way. Whenever I approach a problem, I find the simplest possible design that could work well. This doesn't stretch my complexity mus

I apply this in a different way. Whenever I approach a problem, I find the simplest possible design that could work well. This doesn't stretch my complexity muscles very often, but what it does is allow me to fit more complex problems into my bounded solution space that I could otherwise. I do agree with limiting the power of languages used. Scala was the cautionary tale I'd experienced. The team can agree to limit themselves to the less complex forms, but it's a slippery slope and many end up adding just a bit until everything the language has to offer gets used somewhere. Then it takes a good chunk of the team to sort out any area on second look, or a new better team to maintain what's been produced. I think programming languages should have 2 scores: how good it feels to write new code in it; how bad it feels to maintain old code in it.