> It's much harder to write simple code than complex for reasons that boil down to entropy -- there are simply many more ways to write complex code than simple code, and finding one of the simple expressions of program logic requires both smarts and a modicum of experience.

Also effort, there are smart people who couldn't be bothered to reduce extraneous load for other people, because they already took the effort to understand it, but they don't have the theory-of-mind to understand that it's not easy for others, or can't be bothered to do so.

> I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter. - Blaise Pascal

Good rule of thumb I find is, did the new change make it harder or easier to reason about the change / topic?

If we go back to the concept of cognitive load, it's fine cognitive load goes up if the solution is necessarily complex. It's the extraneous bit that we should work to minimize, reduce if possible.