Forget monoliths vs. microservices: cognitive load is what matters
Senior leaders and people that want to get there take note: cognitive load is the base problem one solves for when scaling development organizations. This article is a pretty good introduction -- especially building with empathy and emphasizing &quot;what&quot; over &quot;how&quot;. But one can also look to any tech company that provides an API devs like (my fav: Stripe) as an example of what low cognitive load relative to the problem looks like.<p>Truly talented leaders tend to realize that high cognitive load comes from lots of places besides technical considerations too. It can be hard to think about a problem when you&#x27;re also dealing with a toxic team member, untrustworthy leadership, lack of organizational focus, shitty HR policies, feeling unsafe at work, etc. Unfortunately, fighting against those elements is a never-ending battle.<p>Leaders that mix low cognitive load with clear direction and an interesting problem start to approach that highly-sought-after &quot;early startup productivity&quot; that so many companies can&#x27;t seem to figure out. At least until a re-org, acquisition, or change in the c-suite comes along and blows it all up.