ignore the code: Removing Features →

Constant vigilance is the price you pay for an elegant application.

This means you have to learn to say «no». Your current customers will ask you for a feature they want. Potential customers will tell you that if you add just one specific feature, they’ll buy the app. You can’t be everything for everyone. You have to let some people be customers of your competitors.

This is a really wonderful explanation of the problem with feature bloat, some good reasons why and how it happens, and what can be done to manage it. No imaginary straw men here. This is the way all posts of this type should be written (and, mea culpa, I am taking this lesson to heart).