in reply to Over-designing....or not?

I have started in the past year to run every design decision I make under the microscope of YAGNI. If I will not get to use something in at least three different places, I don't want to refactor to that point. If I will use it in at least three places, then I will refactor.

The rationale behind three is that if I need it in one place, just do the simplest thing that will work. If I need it in two places, I want to cut'n'paste, just to see what is the same and what is different. If I need it in three places, I will have enough information now to intelligently refactor.

Being right, does not endow the right to be rude; politeness costs nothing.
Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid.
Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence.
Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.

In Section Meditations