The Best Systems Disappear.

The first automation I built, I wanted everyone to notice. Notifications, dashboards, elaborate workflows. It felt satisfying. Now I have the opposite goal: if someone notices the system, something probably went wrong.

Customers don’t care that an automation sent them a reminder. They care that nobody forgot about them. Staff don’t care how many workflows run behind the scenes. They care that they didn’t have to chase information for half an hour. Good systems don’t ask for attention; they remove friction. It’s true outside software too — roads, electricity, running water. You only notice them when they stop. Business systems aren’t much different. The highest compliment I’ve ever received wasn’t about an automation. It was someone saying, “Oh… it just works.” That’s the whole point. Not to impress people with complexity, but to make complexity disappear.

Which sounds simple, and isn’t. I used to think simple systems were built by simple people. Now I think the opposite. Complexity grows on its own — just keep adding buttons, settings, exceptions. Anyone can make something complicated. Simplicity has to be designed. It’s what’s left after someone spends an unreasonable amount of time removing what isn’t needed. If someone explains a hard idea clearly, there’s a good chance they spent years understanding it. Simple isn’t the absence of complexity. It’s what remains after someone has wrestled with it. That’s why I don’t trust solutions that look clever on day one; the ones that survive are the ones that quietly become obvious in hindsight.

The same instinct shows up in how a thing explains itself. Every project reaches a moment with two choices: add another explanation, or simplify the thing itself. I’ve started preferring the second. Documentation matters — I probably write more of it than most people — but it shouldn’t be an excuse for confusing design. If every new user needs a thirty-minute walkthrough, maybe the system isn’t as intuitive as we think. So wherever I can, I make the interface answer its own questions: good folder names, clear status labels, predictable navigation, consistent terminology. Every tiny decision reduces someone’s cognitive load — and that someone might be me, six months later. The best explanation is often the one you never had to write.