[acmj]

> a lot of the smartest software engineers I've known have a terrible tendency to over-engineer things.

Your definition of "smartest software engineers" is the opposite of mine. In my view, over-engineering is the symptom of dumb programmers. The best programmers simplify complex problems; they don't complicate simple problems.

[deklund]

I don't know that our definitions are that different. Most of the over-engineering I've seen in practice was done in the name of simplifying a complex problem, but resulted in a system that was too rigid to adapt. Our definition of "over-engineered" might be different, though.