principle-minimize-reader-load

Measure reader load on two axes: layers of indirection between a question and its answer, and hidden mutable state the reader must track. Collapse wrappers with one caller, inline pass-through adapters, and shrink state scope toward locals and pure functions.

Remove a layer when it has only one caller, no second implementation, or merely repeats the same methods and arguments as the layer below. A layer earns its keep only if it compresses complexity or hides a meaningful decision.

Cyclomatic complexity counts branches, while reader load counts indirection layers and hidden state. A flat file with fifty globals can be harder to reason about than a deep call stack, so both axes must be guarded independently.

Keep a layer when it hides a meaningful decision, compresses a broad interface into a narrow one, or genuinely supports multiple implementations. Collapsing boundaries that hide real complexity just moves reader load elsewhere.

Prefer returns over mutations, locals over fields, fields over module state, and module state over globals. Derive values instead of syncing them, and name invariants once at the boundary rather than repeating them in every consumer.