Just one abstraction
Alex sees the pattern. Jo sees Tuesday.
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SPECIMEN No. 036 · Architectural reflex
Premature Abstraction
Making something generic before the second use case exists, so that the third one can arrive and not fit.
🌱 Perennial- 🏠 Habitat
- Codebases with exactly one payment provider
- 🦈 Natural predator
- The third provider
- 🤒 Common symptom
- ProviderAgnosticCapabilityLayerFactory
THE DEBATE
The room is split
If the whole team walked into the review, who would reach for Premature Abstraction, and who would push back.
💖 Abstract early
AlexThe Architect“Two providers already show the shape; designing the interface now costs a diagram, retrofitting costs a quarter.”
GregThe Hedger“An adapter in front of every vendor means the third one is a new class, not a rewrite.”
HugoThe Perfectionist“Proper code has interfaces from day one; that is what every style guide he follows says.”
🛑 Wait for the third case
JoThe Cowboy“Two adapters fit on one screen and ship this week; an abstraction from two examples guesses the wrong seams.”
RileyThe Minimalist“The layer is a moving part with no second use case; extract it from working code, later.”
RuthThe Maintainer“Every ProviderAgnosticCapabilityLayerFactory she inherited fit exactly the providers that never arrived.”
FIELD REPORTS
Stories about Premature Abstraction
TAKES
