The Art of Abstraction and Knowing When to Hold Back

Let’s talk about abstractions. You know, those handy shortcuts we developers love to use to make our lives easier. They’re like the seasoning in a recipe—just the right amount can make everything better, but too much? Well, let’s just say I’ve been there, and it’s not pretty.

Abstractions are a cornerstone of modern software development. Honestly, I can’t imagine building software today without them. Think about it: how many of us write our own code to store data anymore? Not many. We use databases. Need a web server? There’s a library for that. JSON encoding/decoding? Yep, that’s abstracted too. These tools save us so much time. But here’s the thing—like that one friend who always overstays their welcome, abstractions can sometimes overstay their usefulness.

The real trouble starts when we try to abstract business logic. You know, the stuff that makes your product unique. Here’s where I’ve seen teams (including mine, back in the day) get a little too ambitious. When you build an abstraction, you’re essentially saying, “I know exactly how this will work now and in the future.” That’s a bold claim, especially when it comes to business logic.

Let me tell you a story. Early in my career, I worked on a project where we spent weeks building this beautiful, abstracted system for handling user workflows. We thought we’d covered every possible use case—A, B, C, D, and even E, just to be safe. Then, guess what? Users started asking for F. And F didn’t fit into our neat little system. Cue the grumbling, the late nights, and the inevitable refactoring. What was supposed to save us time ended up costing us way more in the long run.

Here’s the thing: technical abstractions, like databases or HTTP libraries, are easier to get right because they’ve been around forever. We’ve got decades of experience to lean on. But business logic? That’s a whole different ballgame. Every product is unique, and trying to predict how it’ll evolve is like trying to guess the next viral TikTok trend—it’s nearly impossible.

Take Google, for example. Back in the ’90s, there were tons of search engines, but Google’s PageRank algorithm made it stand out. These products succeeded because they did something different. And that’s the challenge with abstracting business logic: you can’t predict what that “different” thing will be until you’ve actually put your product out there and seen how users react.

So, when’s the right time to build abstractions for business logic? My advice: wait. Let your product breathe. Let users interact with it. Patterns will emerge, and then you can build abstractions that actually make sense. Some of the best abstractions I’ve ever built came from refactoring existing code. Yeah, I know—refactoring can feel like a chore, but it’s not the enemy. It’s an opportunity to make your codebase stronger and more flexible.

The bottom line? Abstractions are powerful, but they’re not a silver bullet. Use them wisely, and don’t rush into abstracting your business logic until you’ve got a clearer picture of where your product is headed. Trust me, your future self (and your team) will thank you.