[highfrequency]

> “All abstractions leak, and the only way to deal with the leaks competently is to learn about how the abstractions work and what they are abstracting. So the abstractions save us time working, but they don’t save us time learning.”

Very nicely worded. But I would also add that:

1. An abstraction can often be manned by one person, so when it leaks only one person needs to understand it deeply enough to fix it.

2. The article seems to miss the iterative nature of abstractions. Over time, the goal is to iterate on the abstraction so that it exposes more of the stuff that matters, and less of the stuff that doesn’t matter. Perhaps all abstractions leak, but some leak way less often and save much more thinking in the meantime than others. Rather than lamenting the nature of abstractions we should focus effort on making them as practically useful as possible.