[jerf]

To be honest, the technical aspects raised by the question pale in comparison to the human aspects. Even from a position of authority over a coder it can be very difficult to solve the problem of "excessively complicated" code. To "solve" this from a peer position, unless your coworker is an extraordinarily humble person, is going to be quite the trick. It is likely that the cost/benefit analysis (and in engineering you are never more than a few minutes away from a cost/benefit analysis, even here in the "fuzzy human stuff" domain) is unlikely to work out in your favor with any sort of strong approach. You are unlikely to experience any positive outcomes, what ones you could are fairly minimal, and the negative outcomes (w.r.t. your employment) are almost unbounded, including the ability to outright work your way into losing your job.

All you can really do is write good code yourself, keep learning how to write better code, and use this as an opportunity to learn how to deal with complicated code because goodness knows you'll never stop encountering overcomplicated code, unless this industry changes a lot.

If that sounds a bit defeatist... well... it's hard to express my true feelings in text here. I've been doing this for just shy of 20 years now and have no intention of stopping, so it's not like I'm burned out or anything. Yet... you can not escape the fact that you shall always be working with people whom you wish would code better. I find it helpful to remember that A: among the set of people I really wish would code better is my past self, at times even as recently as last week and B: there are certainly plenty of other people who wish that I would code better, for their personal definition of "better". In fact, I know that even as my code tends towards the "simple" side and I find some people's overcomplicated, they consider my code oversimple. (I mean, I'm still on my side and can defend it, but, well, insert any well-known saying about opinions here, right?) A certain amount of zen and a certain amount of humility is called for here in the long term, I think.

[mistermann]

Considering the disappointing realities of human nature and office politics, I think your defeatist attitude is 100% the correct strategy. It may be worth politely and discreetly trying once to make things better, but in my experience if the individual / organization shows no interest (or just as likely, outright hostility) to the philosophy of trying to do things simply, the best recipe is to shut up, collect your paycheque, and constantly look for better opportunities elsewhere.