--- title: What the hell have you built. | daily.dev description: A reminder to developers about the dangers of over-engineering. Building complex systems with minimal users (often mostly test accounts) defeats the purpose.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/what-the-hell-have-you-built--hnpv2bjl3 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: What the hell have you built. | daily.dev og:description: A reminder to developers about the dangers of over-engineering. Building complex systems with minimal users (often mostly test accounts) defeats the purpose.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/what-the-hell-have-you-built--hnpv2bjl3 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/hNpv2BjL3.png og:image:alt: What the hell have you built. 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. # What the hell have you built. **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 1 min read · 42 upvotes · 5 comments ## Summary A reminder to developers about the dangers of over-engineering. Building complex systems with minimal users (often mostly test accounts) defeats the purpose. Good architecture should be explainable without convoluted diagrams. The key principle: start with simple solutions and only introduce complexity when there's concrete evidence it's necessary. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@kabirzfw** · 5 upvotes > The downside is that as the need to evolve arises, existing system becomes tech debt and getting stakeholders to prioritize it is always a challenge. **@ezee** · 0 upvotes > What is this? Why does an opinion have a landing page? The buttons don't do anything? **@surajshetty** · 0 upvotes > If a system is hard to explain, it’s usually a sign it’s solving problems that don’t exist yet. Start small, validate with real users, and let architecture evolve from actual needs, not assumptions. **@daniel8000** · 0 upvotes > Im working on complex system now and I do whatever my boss ask for. Even if it adds complexity. I became a yesman. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [You're Not Building Netflix: Stop Coding Like You Are](https://daily.dev/posts/you-re-not-building-netflix-stop-coding-like-you-are-fvaumfnpy) · DEV · 673 upvotes · 55 comments - [I follow an architecture principle I call The Law of Collective Amnesia](https://daily.dev/posts/i-follow-an-architecture-principle-i-call-the-law-of-collective-amnesia-8kstqv5ka) · ITNEXT · 78 upvotes · 8 comments - [How to Know If your Software Is Overcomplicated or Oversimplified?](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-know-if-your-software-is-overcomplicated-or-oversimplified--iaysxkkga) · Three Dots Labs · 48 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/what-the-hell-have-you-built--hnpv2bjl3) ```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":"TechArticle","headline":"What the hell have you built.","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-the-hell-have-you-built--hnpv2bjl3","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/what-the-hell-have-you-built--hnpv2bjl3"},"datePublished":"2025-11-06T10:23:59.037Z","dateModified":"2025-11-06T10:24:20.886Z","description":"A reminder to developers about the dangers of over-engineering. 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Why does an opinion have a landing page? The buttons don’t do anything?","datePublished":"2026-01-03T01:59:44.167Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hNpv2BjL3#c-T19GQvxGG","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"E","url":"https://daily.dev/ezee","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--fCfktlbR--/f_auto/v1767451916/avatars/avatar_93JdfDmXtcEWkGXSGC1ne?_a=BAMAK+ZW0"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"If a system is hard to explain, it’s usually a sign it’s solving problems that don’t exist yet. Start small, validate with real users, and let architecture evolve from actual needs, not assumptions.","datePublished":"2025-11-20T04:38:23.358Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hNpv2BjL3#c-cy0KSJL0u","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Suraj Shetty","url":"https://daily.dev/surajshetty","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--LFItfUJQ--/f_auto/v1761226127/avatars/avatar_gNJKg5K0npw7ASw1zhhU6?_a=BAMAK+ZW0"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Im working on complex system now and I do whatever my boss ask for. Even if it adds complexity. I became a yesman.","datePublished":"2026-01-08T08:33:24.640Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hNpv2BjL3#c-hm0QI1tRO","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel","url":"https://daily.dev/daniel8000","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--F_RltCZK--/f_auto/v1738746891/avatars/avatar_SOwG1kJqf6HK6TkGmZH45"}}]} ```