The power of having less features

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A new email friend mentioned a project inspired by RepoRat (my minimal static Git repo website generator).

They mentioned how chosing to not create all of the "standard" git forge website features (wiki, issue tracking, etc.) lead them to come up with better alternatives.

I think this is deeply profound, actually.

It may not be obvious and, in fact, it’s probably completely counter-intuitive to understand how minimalist software can be more powerful than featureful software. You might simply have to experience it for yourself.

But I think it is very much related to the The Importance of Limitations for Creativity and Learning.

It’s amazing how powerful it is to not add features to your project.

First of all, you can build absolutely anything if you leave off enough features.

I’m serious. If you’ve been putting off starting that amazing programming project because it’s too daunting, maybe it’s not because of the actual core functionality, but because of all the features you were planning to add?

It can be really surprising how small and simple core functionality can be. And having it can be an incredible motivator to put a bit of polish on it and add functionality only as you need it.

When you make not adding the feature an option, it’s incredible how it suddenly frees up your mind to find alternative ways to get the same functionality.

BONUS: If that weren’t enough, I’ve found that the creative alternative often ends up being way better than the feature would have been anyway. Why? Because often you can offload that feature onto some other rock-solid tried-and-true program. (In the style of the Unix philosophy.)