Simplicity Vs. Complexity-Embracing in Dev Tools

By Yiren Lu — Sep 22, 2021

Tweet by ⚡️ Jean Yang ⚡️

Founder + CEO @akitasoftware. Building the future of API observability. Former professor @CSDatCMU. @MIT_CSAIL PhD. Co-host #PLTalk. Co-producer @zoombachelor.

When we talk about "developer experience," we really need to separate dev tools into two categories: ones that simplify things away and ones that help developers engage with complexity. DX needs are different for simplification tools vs complexity-embracing tools!

Thread. 👇 In the "simplification" category of dev tools are all kinds of automation tools: APIs like Stripe and Twilio; SaaS products like Netlify; domain-specific languages like GraphQL.

You want these tools to be as one-click as possible and shield the developer from most details. The most classic example of a dev tool in the "complexity-embracing" category is a debugger: it shows you your stack trace; it shows you a call graph. It lets you get where you need to go by giving you tools to explore a complex system.

Observability tools are in this category. When people think about/look for dev tools, they often have simplification tools in mind. But for some purposes, what you need is actually a complexity-embracing tool.

For example: monitoring can only take you so far. At some point, you need something to help you root cause. What I'd love to see:

💡 More understanding that not all dev tools can simplify your problems away!
💬 More UX conversations about how to help developers embrace complexity.
❤️ More love and attention for complexity-embracing dev tools, not just the set-it-and-forget-it tools. Do we need another low-code tool, or do we just need more developer-friendly tools for working with SaaS APIs? 😉