Brooks' theoretical arguments and contributions

¶ … integrity -- a principle as important to design, as moral integrity is in general human existence!

When distilling the core concept his theory about design, Brooks states that it is better to omit unnecessary although interesting design elements, than it is to cram a design full of the best ideas that comes to the developers' collective heads. Brooks' cautions may seem obvious -- until one finds one's self at a table, brainstorming with a group of intelligent people. Then, one may falls prey to the temptation to include all of these ideas, as they all seem strong. It also may be the best way to ensure no egos are bruised. Thus, in collaborative work especially, and disciplines such as design often necessitate working with a diverse group of people, the excitement and collective generosity created when generating ideas can subsume the need to complete a focused task and to achieve a particular concept that is clear to an outsider, rather than someone who has been involved in the project from the outset.

For instance, consider a complicated drama with many plot lines -- how many times has one left a theater, saying that the acting was excellent, the dialogue well-written, but -- what was the work about? One remembers the beautiful set or the strange special effects but the organizing idea behind the construction is vague or absent, and the effect of the work is transient. The elements, while all splendid did not gel because a final and resounding impact was not achieved by deploying these elements to a specific purpose. This is even more so when a functional objective is the key, as in design. A meandering design, filled with independent but ultimately uncoordinated ideas may be a noble failure, and an instructive project for its developers. But a teaching tool for designers is not the purpose of most projects. The real objective is to achieve a comprehensible design that is conceptually coherent and more important practically useful to an outsider.