"Cognitive Load" may be a buzzword, and not well defined, and that doesn't mean it isn't a useful concept for evaluating different approaches toward solving problems that may extend the useful life of that solution instead of reinventing yet another wheel.

Getting to a better understanding of "cognitive load" does seem useful. Some things are "easier" to understand than others. Could things that are less efficient to understand be formulated in a way that is more efficient?

I have a notion that "cognitive load" is related to the human's ability to gain and maintain attention to mentally ingesting a solution (along with the problem the solution putatively solves). Interesting reads for this include McGilchrist's Master and His Emissary, and Carolyn Dicey Jennings' "I attend, therefore I am," [0], who was interviewed on the Rutt podcast [1].

0. https://aeon.co/essays/what-is-the-self-if-not-that-which-pa...

1. https://jimruttshow.blubrry.net/the-jim-rutt-show-transcript...