diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 8952acf..5dc9f97 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -1,11 +1,11 @@ # Cognitive Load is what matters -*It is a living document, last update: **February 2024*** +*It is a living document, last update: **May 2024*** ## Introduction There are so many buzzwords and best practices out there, but let's focus on something more fundamental. What matters is the amount of confusion developers feel going through the code. -Confusion costs time and money. **Confusion is caused by high cognitive load**. It's not a fancy imaginary concept, it can't be misleading - cognitive load is there, and we can feel it. +Confusion costs time and money. **Confusion is caused by high cognitive load**. It's not a fancy imaginary concept, it's a fundamental constraint, and we can feel it. Since we spend far more time reading and understanding code than writing it, we should constantly ask ourselves whether we are embedding excessive cognitive load into our code. @@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ The tricky part is that the previous author may not have experienced a high cogn **Extraneous** - created by the way the information is presented. Caused by factors not directly relevant to the task, such as smart author's quirks. Can be greatly reduced. We will focus on this type of cognitive load. -![Intrinsic vs Extraneous](/img/smartauthorv2.png) +![Intrinsic vs Extraneous](/img/smartauthorv3.png) Let's jump straight to the concrete practical examples of extraneous cognitive load. @@ -294,7 +294,7 @@ Does the new fancy buzzword comply with these principles? Or all it does is crea Do you feel it? The above statement is difficult to understand. We have just created an unnecessary cognitive load in your head. **Do not do this to your colleagues.** -![Smart Author](/img/smartauthorv2.png) +![Smart Author](/img/smartauthorv3.png) We have enough complexity in the work that we do already, why add more on top of that? We should reduce any cognitive load above and beyond what is intrinsic to the work we do. diff --git a/img/smartauthorv3.png b/img/smartauthorv3.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa13f2c Binary files /dev/null and b/img/smartauthorv3.png differ