Cognitive Load

What problem does it solve?

Cognitive Load provides a framework to minimize extraneous mental effort in code and design. It teaches how to reduce working memory load by simplifying conditionals, guarding against deep nesting, and favoring composition over inheritance.

Core Features & Use Cases

• 13 Principles: Extract complex conditionals, use early returns, prefer composition over inheritance, and keep modules deep rather than frivolously shallow.
• Guard Clauses: Flatten nested logic to improve readability.
• Self-describing Codes: Prefer descriptive statuses over numeric codes.
• Framework-Agnostic: Keep business logic separate from framework glue.
• Code Review Guidance: Use cognitive-load checklist to audit code for readability.

Quick Start

Run a cognitive-load audit on a function, refactor to remove nested conditionals, extract named booleans, and replace deep inheritance with composition.