Atomic Spin :: Elements of Software

This excerpt from an interview with David Gelernter caught my eye. I found a link to the interview in the comments for a thoughtful blog post about SilverLight.

Q: What is the pragmatic role of beauty in technology?

A: ...[B]eauty is the best value in software because it’s the best tool in managing complexity. If I have to build a tremendously complex machine, if I make the machine elegant, the lines clean, simple & beautiful, the chance is greater that I will be able to understand it and master it than if I slop together some jalopy of a program.

Beauty in mathematics is often a hint of correctness. This is the underlying truth that I see in “Do the simplest thing that works.”