Every abstraction creates a debt of understanding.
Abstractions save repetition only when their purpose remains legible.
Interpretation
An abstraction can remove repetition while adding a new concept everyone must learn. The trade is worthwhile when the boundary is stable, the name is precise, and the hidden detail truly varies. When those conditions are absent, a helper becomes a toll booth every future reader must cross.
Practice
- Name the concept before extracting it.
- Keep the simplest concrete implementation until variation appears.
- Delete abstractions whose contract no one can explain.
Anti-pattern
Creating a framework for the second occurrence of five similar lines.