# KISS (/academy/kiss)



KISS means Keep It Simple — skip the clever version.

You will get two versions. One is plain and a little dull. The other is a one-liner that makes you feel sharp. The clever one is unread at 3 a.m. The boring `if` ships.

Simple is not sloppy. Simple is the smallest thing that is obviously right. [YAGNI](/academy/yagni) decides *whether* to build it. KISS decides *how* it looks when you do.

**Readable is the feature**

Code is impressive because the next person does not have to decode it. That next person is you after a nap, a teammate, and the [agent](/academy/agent) that has to edit it. Clever is a tax on all three.

If you cannot say what a block does in one sentence, it is too clever. Delete it or ask for a rewrite. [DRY](/academy/dry) can wait. A shared helper nobody understands is not simpler.

**Ask for boring**

Agents optimize for what you praise. Praise short and "smart" and you get a riddle. Say: "Prefer obvious, readable code. No clever tricks. An `if` beats a dense chain." Then read it back. If you would be embarrassed to [commit](/academy/commit) it without comments, it is not simple yet.

At a hackathon, the clever cache around the demo query is how you spend the last hour on a [bug](/academy/bug) you invented. The obvious fetch, plus a skeleton, plus a [deploy](/academy/deploy), wins the room.

**What this unlocks**

If both versions work, keep the one you can explain. [Refactor](/academy/refactoring) toward obvious, not toward short. Clever is a tax. Boring is a gift to morning-you.