--- title: this | daily.dev description: Deep inheritance hierarchies create unmaintainable codebases through cognitive overload and "everything touches everything" architectures. The author examines... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/this-tcz81tct7 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: this | daily.dev og:description: Deep inheritance hierarchies create unmaintainable codebases through cognitive overload and "everything touches everything" architectures. The author examines... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/this-tcz81tct7 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/tCz81tCT7.png og:image:alt: this og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # this **[RalphNex](https://daily.dev/sources/ralphnex)** · [@aadilghani](https://daily.dev/aadilghani) · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Deep inheritance hierarchies create unmaintainable codebases through cognitive overload and "everything touches everything" architectures. The author examines real-world examples including a five-layer inheritance hierarchy for a payment page and an 866-line generic repository, demonstrating how preemptive framework design leads to rigid abstractions that resist change. The solution is to extract patterns after solving problems multiple times, prefer composition over inheritance, and remain skeptical of deep hierarchies beyond two or three layers. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Governing Security in the Age of Infinite Signal](https://daily.dev/posts/governing-security-in-the-age-of-infinite-signal-qhihbir44) · Snyk · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [No one has a good plan for how AI companies should work with the government](https://daily.dev/posts/no-one-has-a-good-plan-for-how-ai-companies-should-work-with-the-government-nkajqoze1) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#.net](https://daily.dev/tags/.net), [#design-patterns](https://daily.dev/tags/design-patterns), [#technical-debt](https://daily.dev/tags/technical-debt) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/this-tcz81tct7) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-tcz81tct7","headline":"this","text":"Shared: Why Your Software Sucks: Inheritance","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-tcz81tct7","datePublished":"2026-01-27T13:58:15.686Z","dateModified":"2026-01-27T13:58:15.734Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Aadil Ghani","url":"https://daily.dev/aadilghani","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/AOh14GhkQDRGzqTobLxwRg0cOpqSUQECoWth9RzOT3Ehgg=s100","description":"Building product experiences the right way","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":870}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--foaA6JGU--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2004","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/pNnMGu4K8"},"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/squads/ralphnex","name":"RalphNex"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"RalphNex","item":"https://daily.dev/squads/ralphnex"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"this"}]} ```