How we turned simple problems into complex systems
Web development used to be straightforward.
You wrote HTML for structure, CSS for styling, and JavaScript for behavior. You shipped, fixed bugs, and moved on.
Today, building a “simple” website often means choosing a framework, a meta-framework on top of it, a bundler, a transpiler, a linter, a formatter, a state manager, a router, a deployment platform, and a dozen configuration files—before you write a single line of product code.
Somewhere along the way, we made things harder than they needed to be.
Complexity Isn’t the Problem — Unnecessary Complexity Is
Modern tools exist for good reasons. Applications are larger, teams are distributed, and performance expectations are higher.
The problem isn’t that web development evolved.
The problem is that complexity became the default, even when the problem doesn’t require it.
Not every project needs:
- A full framework
- Server-side rendering
- Advanced state management
- Micro-frontends
Build steps that take longer than the feature itself
Yet we often start there anyway.
Tooling Became the Goal, Not the Means
Many developers today spend more time:
- Debugging build errors
- Upgrading dependencies
- Reading migration guides
- Fighting configuration
…than solving actual user problems.
When tools demand constant attention, they stop serving us.
They become the product, instead of helping us build one.
Abstractions Are Leaky (And That’s Okay)
Frameworks promise to simplify development by hiding complexity.
But every abstraction leaks eventually.
When something breaks:
- You still need to understand JavaScript
- You still need to understand the browser
- You still need to understand how the web works
If you don’t, debugging becomes guesswork instead of reasoning.
Simple Solutions Still Scale
There’s a quiet truth we don’t talk about enough:
Simple code is easier to scale than clever code.
Code that:
- Is readable
- Has fewer dependencies
- Uses familiar patterns
…is easier to maintain, onboard onto, and evolve over time.
Complex systems should earn their complexity.
Start Simple, Add Complexity When It’s Needed
Instead of asking “What’s the modern stack?”, try asking:
- What problem am I actually solving?
- How long will this project live?
- Who will maintain it after me?
- What’s the simplest thing that works?
You can always add tools later.
Removing unnecessary complexity is much harder.
Modern Web Development Isn’t Broken — Our Defaults Are
Frameworks, tools, and platforms are powerful.
But power without restraint leads to overengineering.
The web is still simple at its core.
We just need to remember that simplicity is a choice, not a limitation.
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