Minimize Cognitive Complexity

          
            ## Guidelines for Minimizing Cognitive Complexity

Cognitive complexity refers to the mental effort required to understand code. Minimizing it makes code more maintainable and reduces the likelihood of bugs.

1. **Function and Component Size:**

   - Keep functions and components small and focused on a single responsibility
   - Aim for functions under 20-30 lines where possible
   - Break large functions into smaller, well-named helper functions
   - Consider the "screen rule" - a function should fit on one screen

2. **Control Flow Simplification:**
   - Limit nesting to 2-3 levels maximum
   - Extract deeply nested code into separate functions
   - Use early returns to handle edge cases at the beginning of functions
   - Replace complex conditionals with guard clauses
   - Consider replacing nested if statements with switch statements or lookup tables
3. **Logical Expression Clarity:**

   - Break complex Boolean expressions into well-named variables
   - Limit logical operators in a single expression (3 or fewer conditions)
   - Use positive conditions instead of negative ones where possible
   - Avoid double negatives

4. **Abstraction and Encapsulation:**

   - Hide implementation details behind clear interfaces
   - Use composition to manage complex objects
   - Create helper functions with descriptive names for complex operations
   - Use meaningful design patterns that solve common problems

5. **State Management:**

   - Minimize the number of state variables in a component
   - Use consistent patterns for state updates
   - Consolidate related state into objects or custom hooks
   - Make state changes predictable and traceable

6. **Readability Techniques:**

   - Use consistent formatting and whitespace
   - Group related code together
   - Add empty lines between logical sections
   - Maintain consistent levels of abstraction within functions

7. **Documentation for Complex Logic:**
   - Add comments explaining WHY for complex algorithms or business rules
   - Document assumptions and edge cases
   - Use meaningful variable names that explain their purpose

By reducing cognitive complexity, you make your code more approachable, easier to debug, and more maintainable in the long term - both for yourself and other developers.