I think it's important to make a distinction between over engineering "features" and "properties". I completely agree that over engineering that takes the form

I think it's important to make a distinction between over engineering "features" and "properties". I completely agree that over engineering that takes the form of "this feature will be cool, lets build it" without validation or demonstrated need from the market is generally a bad idea. However taking time to understand the fundamentals of a system and build a robust core on strong principles is almost always a good idea.