&gt; If we accept that, then simplicity alone is not a desirable goal.<p>Agreed. Otherwise, Forth and Scheme would&#x27;ve taken over the world.<p>&gt; Something may well be formally simple but at the same time incompatible with human cognition.<p>Do you have a concrete example?<p>&gt; (if we wish to view simplicity as possessing a positive value that implies ease of understanding).<p>I don&#x27;t particularly fetishize simplicity. What I want is the least effort path to writing correct programs. The following features help:<p>0. Simplicity - smaller formal systems have less room for nasty surprises.<p>1. Using the right tool for resource management - sometimes it&#x27;s a garbage collector, sometimes it&#x27;s substructural types.<p>2. Typeful programming - it&#x27;s an invaluable tool for navigating the logical structure of the problem domain.