[abc3354]

> Nobody should start to undertake a large project. You start with a small trivial project, and you should never expect it to get large. If you do, you'll just overdesign and generally think it is more important than it likely is at that stage. Or worse, you might be scared away by the sheer size of the work you envision. So start small, and think about the details. Don't think about some big picture and fancy design. If it doesn't solve some fairly immediate need, it's almost certainly over-designed. And don't expect people to jump in and help you. That's not how these things work. You need to get something half-way useful first, and then others will say "hey, that almost works for me", and they'll get involved in the project.

A quote from Linus Torvalds someone posted on HN and I saved almost a year ago

[chrisweekly]

"A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system."

- John Gall

[satvikpendem]

This describes biological evolution well too.

However, I wonder how this works for physical things, how does one create a simple version of a train or bridge? Some things have a complexity floor.

[still_grokking]

How did the "simpler" physical laws looked before nature arrived at the current ones?

(That's a half serous question, of course.)