What resonated most with me here is the editing analogy. Writing is easy, editing is the grind. Products work the same way, but we reward teams for adding rather than cutting, so we end up celebrating clutter.
I so agree with you, and wish more would think as you do. Back in 2009/10 I worked with a 25-year-old company that made industrial printers, both the hardware and software, and was falling behind new competitors. On exploring what was holding them back they identified "too many features" as the problem. The maintenance of specialised, barely-used, or even never-used features seriously hampered their ability to deliver actual value. Over the years I have encountered more of this problem. As you say, any fool can add new features. It takes skill and thought to add actual value, which often (as in the case mentioned) include removing all the years-accumulated bloat.
What resonated most with me here is the editing analogy. Writing is easy, editing is the grind. Products work the same way, but we reward teams for adding rather than cutting, so we end up celebrating clutter.
I so agree with you, and wish more would think as you do. Back in 2009/10 I worked with a 25-year-old company that made industrial printers, both the hardware and software, and was falling behind new competitors. On exploring what was holding them back they identified "too many features" as the problem. The maintenance of specialised, barely-used, or even never-used features seriously hampered their ability to deliver actual value. Over the years I have encountered more of this problem. As you say, any fool can add new features. It takes skill and thought to add actual value, which often (as in the case mentioned) include removing all the years-accumulated bloat.
Yes, there are many reasons why this happens, including:
1. Celebrating addition and not subtraction
2. Loss aversion
3. We're hard-wired to add instead of subtract when coming up with novel solutions
4. Subtraction feels riskier than addition. Removing something is more likely to break something than adding something.
5. Lack of knowledge. If you don't know what works, it's easy to add something new, it's hard to remove something.