I thought this section was particularly good: """ He was obsessed with how complexity can creep into unexpected corners of your life, disguised as necessity. H

I thought this section was particularly good: """ He was obsessed with how complexity can creep into unexpected corners of your life, disguised as necessity. He gives the example of a farmer who convinces himself he must eat meat in order to stay strong. Since meat is expensive, the farmer tills more land in order to afford it. And the harder he works, the hungrier he gets, in a vicious spiral. [...] What I had thought was a convenience had actually been the foundation for a little pyramid of anxieties. [...] I'm intrigued by this idea of complexity being something adversarial, that sneaks into your life, like a cockroach, and you have to fight to eradicate. """ Doesn't just apply to life, but also to software and startups. I've been running a tech startup about as long as Maciej (though with a very different path / business), and I sometimes wonder about the complexities we now take for granted, 4 years in. Not just complexities of our business, but also the infrastructure we've re-built, re-factored, re-architected, etc. over the years and our own understanding of the problem space we've "mastered". We've assembled this tapestry of tools, technologies, processes, cultural practices, customers, partners, etc. And as software engineers, we have "simply accepted" a certain level of complexity. When the company first started in 2009, it was just two guys sending keystrokes into a fresh vim buffer. No "funding", no "process", no "brand" -- just creation. I think this is what creates nostalgia for the early days of a company's life -- it's the purity and simplicity of it. I wish I had gotten Maciej's advice earlier and kept a journal.