>> Misconception 1: specification documents are simpler than the corresponding code

I used to be on that side of the argument - clearly code is more precise so it MUST be simpler than wrangling with the uncertainty of prose. But precision isn't the only factor in play.

The argument here is that essential complexity lives on and you can only convert between expressions of it - that is certainly true but it's is overlooking both accidental complexity and germane complexity.

Specs in prose give you an opportunity to simplify by right-sizing germane complexity in a way that code can't.

You might say "well i could create a library or a framework and teach everyone how to use it" and so when we're implementing the code to address the essential complexity, we benefit from the germane complexity of the library. True, but now consider the infinite abstraction possible in prose. Which has more power to simplify by replacing essential complexity with germane complexity?

Build me a minecraft clone - there's almost zero precision here, if it weren't for the fact that word minecraft is incredibly load bearing in this sentence, then you'd have no chance of building the right thing. One sentence. Contrast with the code you'd have to write and read to express the same.