What is simplicity and why do we value it so much? How does it relate to complexity? When is complexity good and when is it bad? How does simplicity differ from ease? As we examine these questions we’ll find that the situation is not quite as simple (!) as it might first appear. In the course of the discussion we’ll come up with a mental model for framing problems that we can apply to many things – but we’ll particularly look at how we can apply it to our designs and code. We’ll also look at how some programming languages help us more than others in our drive towards simplicity.