Everyone talks about essentialism like it's some profound discovery. It's not. It's just common sense wrapped in self-help packaging: do less stuff.

The problem isn't that people don't understand the concept. It's that they're terrible at identifying what actually matters.

You don't need another framework for saying no. You need honesty about what you're optimizing for.

The Real Question

What are you trying to achieve? Not what sounds impressive. Not what your peer group values. What do you actually care about when you strip away the performance?

Most people can't answer this. They've outsourced their priorities to their industry, their company, or whoever seems successful on social media.

Applied to Code

In software, essentialism means writing less code. Not "clean code with perfect abstractions." Less code. Fewer dependencies. Simpler architectures.

Every abstraction you add is a bet that the complexity cost is worth it. Most of those bets lose. You're not going to need it, and adding it now makes everything harder to change later.

Standard library over frameworks. Boring technology over cutting edge. Working software over architectural purity.

Applied to Career

You don't need to attend every conference. You don't need to be on every social platform. You don't need to have opinions about every new technology that drops.

You need to be good at something valuable. Everything else is distraction disguised as professional development.

The Uncomfortable Part

Essentialism means accepting you can't do everything. That project you've been meaning to start? That side hustle everyone says you should have? If you haven't started it yet, you probably don't actually want to do it.

That's fine. Stop carrying it around.

What Actually Matters

For most developers: shipping working software that solves real problems. Everything else - the methodologies, the tools, the debates - only matters if it helps you do that.

If it doesn't, cut it.