[vacuity]

I like to think of it as two intertwined rules:

  a concrete problem domain has an ideal solution with ideal abstractions for its purposes
  seek to understand your problem domain to a reasonable extent before writing hard-to-change code

Of course, we don't understand the problem domain perfectly from the start, and neither do we write perfect programs from the start. It's an iterative process of optimization, where you alternatively work on a specific understanding or work on the understanding. Everyone has to figure out that balance for themselves.