I explicitly advocate crippling tools and making them more complex if it results in them being easier to learn. The cost of a barrier to entry is multiplied by

I explicitly advocate crippling tools and making them more complex if it results in them being easier to learn. The cost of a barrier to entry is multiplied by everyone it keeps out who could have been productive / creative / or found their passion. The cost of a limited set of tool features is, arguably, that people will exhaust the tool and be limited. However I have never found this argument convincing given what was achieved with 64kb of memory, or even paper and pencil. The typewriter, the polaroid camera, the word processor, email. All are increases in complexity and massive decreases in effort to learn and they all resulted in massive increases in the production of culture and exchange of ideas. Some inventions are both easier to learn and less complex (Feynman diagrams) but if I had to pick one, I pick easy to learn, every single time.