Minimize Reader Load

Maintainability is the work a reader must do to understand code. Track two axes: layers to trace (indirections between the question and the answer) and state to hold (hidden or mutable context the reader must keep in their head). LOC, cyclomatic complexity, and "clean architecture" are proxies. Reader load is the thing that matters. The two axes are independent. A flat file with 50 globals can be as hard to reason about as a 6-layer adapter stack. Guard both. This is the human analog of Guard the Context Window. Working memory is finite for readers too.

• Collapse layers that cost more than they save. One caller, one implementation, or direct delegation alone does not establish that a layer is redundant. Check whether a framework facade, type boundary, or class adapter gives callers a useful contract before inlining it. Remove speculative indirection that adds no such value.
• Make adjacent layers change the abstraction. A layer that repeats the same methods and arguments adds reader load without compression. Collapse pass-through layers.
• Demand interface compression. A broad interface that hides little complexity makes readers learn both the surface and the implementation. Prefer boundaries that hide meaningful decisions.
• Shrink state scope: prefer pure functions (returns over mutations), locals over fields, fields over module state, and module state over globals. Derive instead of sync.
• Name the invariant at the boundary, not in every consumer, so the reader learns it once.
• Remove unnecessary noise. Keep a declaration, annotation, derived capability or option only when an actual contract or operation needs it. Inspect owning framework constraints and real uses before deleting it. Automatically supplied capabilities and hypothetical future uses do not justify explicit boilerplate.
• Before adding a layer or a piece of state, ask: does it reduce reader load elsewhere by at least as much?

The test: can a new reader answer "where does X come from?" and "what can change X?" in under 30 seconds? If not, cut layers or cut state.