In future Offline editions, we’ll continue to challenge engineering complexity, as we have in Simple is smart and Complexity is a choice.
Critiquing the bad is useful, so is celebrating the good.
That’s why this issue highlights everyday simplicity.
Engineering simplicity
CI/CD scripts in Bash only. No Terraform, subscriptions, config hell, version updates. Just Bash.
Claude skill for simplifying (SKILL.md). “Favor minimal, legible implementations. Fewer lines and clearer structure make code easier to understand and maintain.”
Typescript on server and client. Strong-typing for AI. Easier to run and read code for devs.
Monolith instead of microservices. Easier for normal-sized teams to manage. “[It] doesn’t pretend to provide a failsafe architectural road to glory. That’s a fool’s errand. Many programmers suffering under many oppressive influences will turn any architecture made with any tool into a big pile of mud.” (signalvnoise)
Markdown files. Portable, straightforward. These files lack fancy embeds and database linking, but they work. In fact, an entire note-taking company is built on this file type (obsidian.md).
Peter Level’s vanilla stack: HTML, CSS, vanilla JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, and SQLite — all running on a single VPS (indiehackers.com).
Dashes and lowercase for files. That’s it. This saves so much time, trust me.
taxes-2025.pdf taxes-2025-amended.pdf statement-checking-2025-01.pdf statement-checking-2025-02.pdfSQLite in production. Notion’s early days and plenty of indie apps run SQLite fine. One file, zero config, no separate server process (sqlite.org/whentouse).
ENV files for config. A flat text file beats a secrets manager, a config service, and three IAM policies. Works locally, works in prod, understandable.
Cron jobs instead of queues. Before Kafka, SQS, or BullMQ — there was cron. Scheduled tasks, no broker, no consumer group, no dead-letter queue. If your job runs once an hour, you don’t need a message bus.
AFK Simplicity
Two-tier pricing models. Free or premium. Free or usage-based. Starter or enterprise. The end.
Dotted grid paper. The best of grid paper + lined paper + freeform paper (leuchturm1917.us)
Capsule wardrobe. A small collection of thoughtfully chosen, easy-to-mix pieces that allows you to create a wide range of outfits with fewer items. Less decision fatigue, more time (modernminimalism.com).
Crossfit’s diet recommendation: “Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar.”
Aldi’s 25-cent deposit to use a cart. “This […] ultimately saves our customers money because we don’t have to hire extra staff to collect grocery carts.” Yep.
My grandma’s “as much as you want” blue cheese rice soup recipe.
1. Buy Uncle Ben’s seasoned “long grain + wild rice” original
2. Cook according to directions
3. Add plain yogurt (not Greek) (as much as you want)
4. Add crumbled blue cheese (as much as you want)
5. Heat thoroughly
6. If you want to make it a 1 dish meal, add browned hamburgerApple Notes for tracking workouts. I used to have three workout apps. Now I have three notes.
The Big Ass Calendar. An entire year on one wall. No flipping, loading screens, or subscriptions (thebigasscalendar.com).
My old gym’s response to complaints about the playlist:
SF street names engraved in the sidewalk. Fewer signs.
Once you start looking for the beautifully simple solutions to problems, you’ll see them everywhere.
I hope these inspire you to simplify your own stack and life.
Reply with an example or two of your own!