For lack of a better term, I have labeled this new problem substance cognitive friction. It is the resistance encountered by a human intellect when it engages with a complex system of rules that change as the problem changes. ... Playing a violin is extremely difficult but low in cognitive friction because although a violinist manipulates it in very complex and sophisticated ways, the violin never enters a "meta" state in which various inputs make it sound like a tuba or a bell.

Keep the teams small. In order to progress, the designers need to share the same vision. ... Before that point, too many cooks spoil the broth.

Like mad sculptors chipping away at a huge block of marble hoping to discover a statue inside, the developers wrote immense quantities of useless code that was all eventually thrown away, along with money, time, reputations, and careers.