“5% Work Smarter Not Harder” needs more explanation in the context of software development as occupation. In a sense, it’s already built-in, self-obvious. The more experienced you become, the smarter you work.

An example of “imperative pattern” (does it mean use of imperative programming?) does not clarify it either. The nearest I can think of is Transaction Script pattern, which in itself is not absolute evil.

And yes, building software is about fighting complexity, to come with a solution of complexity adequate to the problem at hand.

“…writing your code in a way that only depends on the combination of factors and not the order in which they appear”: This is quite fuzzy an advice. Does it mean, that when coding, one should model the domain carefully to combine together states into the “objects” (introducing only necessary “objects”), and in this way checking for “combination of factors” will become easier? In other words, organize multitude of individual variables (maybe, including functions) into related structures (avoiding Data Clamps)? But then again, which “layer of complexity” are you speaking about there?

And again: What is not “manual pattern”? Is it like if you need a web form, then do not manually write all the markup for it, but instead automate by using some form library and concise declarative description (json-schema)? In my opinion, it is not possible to get rid of “manual pattern” completely: It is only possible to move it’s use into higher abstraction layers, and write (or use) more generic code. Ultimately — no code at all.

I am pointing to “objects” above, because in many programming paradigms there are concepts, (for current purpose) similar to objects in object-oriented programming sense. Be it structures, modules, records, abstract data types, etc.

I can kind of understand what “working smarter” may mean, but the “5% Work Smarter Not Harder” section does not really explain it. Beginners will not understand it, experienced developers will understand it, each in their own manner. I am intrigued.