--- title: Cognitive Load author: Artem Zakirullin: LinkedIn, GitHub, X full_title: Cognitive Load category: articles url: https://zakirullin.md/cognitive document_tags: ['favorite', 'must read'] source: reader date: 2025-03-13 created: 2025-03-13 last_highlighted_date: 2024-11-19 summary: There are so many buzzwords and best practices out there, but let's focus on something more fundamental. What matters is the amount of confusion developers feel when going through the code. --- # Cognitive Load  ## Metadata - Author: [[Artem Zakirullin: LinkedIn, GitHub, X]] - Full Title: Cognitive Load - Category: #articles - Document Tags: #favorite #must read - Source: reader - Last Highlighted: 2024-11-19 18:03:35.533337+00:00 - URL: https://zakirullin.md/cognitive ## Summary There are so many buzzwords and best practices out there, but let's focus on something more fundamental. What matters is the amount of confusion developers feel when going through the code. ## Highlights - Confusion costs time and money. Confusion is caused by high *cognitive load*. It's not some fancy abstract concept, but rather **a fundamental human constraint**. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jd2s1wnwjck0exk27c0cndfp)) - Cognitive load is how much a developer needs to think in order to complete a task. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jd2s3pwz2s4qpp44008rhd1r)) - The problem is that **familiarity is not the same as simplicity**. They *feel* the same — that same ease of moving through a space without much mental effort — but for very different reasons. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jd2sfrxz7w33eh25ka6e3ta5)) - This is why I try to get “the new kid” to critique the code before they get too institutionalised! ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jd2sg57ksyj63zz092sgjevt))