Peak Abstraction

An interesting phenomena I've observed over my years as a programmer is the occurrence of "Peak Abstraction" within a young programmer - and their subsequent improvement.

There is a common pattern. It typically occurs after 3-4 years of professional practice. A programmer is growing in his confidence. He begins to tackle more complex, challenging problems. And, he reflects those problems with complex, challenging data structures. He has not yet learnt the fine art of simplicity.

Every member of every data structure is a pointer or a reference. There are no simple data types. Everything becomes a "value dictionary", a "graph-based visitor" or a "multi-dimensional ring buffer". Disassembly of his code reveals it to be little more than an infinite sequence of lwz, lwz, lwz, lwz and more lwz. Perhaps he/she develops a hobbyist interest in Java. They may develop an editor that connects boxes with lines - such editors are great for filling with lots and lots of abstraction! Often, she/he may favour Boost; perhaps he even becomes your office's Boost Guy. Even simple plain old data types such as integers are suddenly held within a smart-pointer container and reference counted. And with a pimpl to retrieve their value.

Those around them become increasingly desperate. They can see the code becoming inflated, inefficient, unmaintainable. Spending time reading this individual's code is like spending time exposed to a radioactive isotope. You can only tolerate a few moments before exhibiting signs of sickness. You attempt to modify their code. 478 pages of template errors dissuade you from considering this foolish course of action again.

And then it happens. The programmer realises the error of their ways. They realise that they are adding neither design value nor computational value. They realise they are adding overhead and maintenance trouble. Perhaps they undergo their first encounter with profiling software. Said software may disclose the full terror of the D$ dirty bomb they have unleashed upon the code. Perhaps they are "introduced" to the profiler by an irate lead in some sort of shotgun-wedding affair. Whatever, the programmer realises that solving complex problems does not require needlessly complex data structures. Such structures impress nobody. People are impressed by simple, elegant solutions. And thus the recovery begins. Data structures become simple, expressive, and maintainable. Data cache misses dip under 20ms/frame for the first time. Co-workers enjoy modifying their code. The compiler begins to emit instructions such as "add" or "mul". Sadly the compiler may be too fond of outputting "jump" instructions at this stage... The programmer themself becomes wary of others who are pre-Peak Abstraction.

One even wonders if, like it's namesake "Peak Oil", there may be a global Peak Abstraction. Perhaps the practising body of programmers may all undergo Peak Abstraction in the next 5-10 years and we will all left never having to refactor some template monstrosity.

But then, where's the fun in that? Don't programmers just love to be indignant about others' code?