The Myth of the Reusable Service-And How We Stopped Over-Engineering Ourselves
Article summary
For years, every architecture review I joined found its way back to the same question: can we make this reusable? At first, that question felt like the right one. It sounded responsible, almost strategic. Build something once, let the rest of the company benefit, and everybody wins. But the longer I stayed in the role, the clearer it became that our commitment to reuse was slowing us down more than it was helping. We weren’t building for real needs. We were building for imaginary futures. How the idea of reuse slowly turned into a trap 1. We solved problems that didn’t exist Trying to make a service generic pushed us into odd territory. We added options for every possible scenario, even the ones we just guessed might happen someday. We layered in endless feature flags. We added optional fields nobody used.
Read Full Article on MediumPractical takeaway
The main idea behind The Myth of the Reusable Service-And How We Stopped Over-Engineering Ourselves is to help teams move from broad theory to clear, repeatable decision making. When teams apply this thinking, they reduce ambiguity and focus on improvements that deliver measurable momentum.
Example scenario
Imagine a team facing competing priorities. By applying the ideas in The Myth of the Reusable Service-And How We Stopped Over-Engineering Ourselves, they can map dependencies, identify risks and choose the next move that produces progress without destabilizing their system.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Trying to redesign everything instead of taking small steps.
- Ignoring real constraints like incentives, ownership or legacy systems.
- Creating documents that do not lead to any change in code or decisions.
How to apply this in real work
Start by identifying where The Myth of the Reusable Service-And How We Stopped Over-Engineering Ourselves already shows up in your architecture or delivery flow. Then pick one area where clarity would reduce friction. Apply the idea, measure its effect and share the learning.
Signs you are doing it correctly
- Teams make decisions faster and with fewer disagreements.
- Architectural conversations become clearer and less abstract.
- Changes land safely with fewer surprises or rework cycles.