The Abstraction Paradox: Why Eliminating All Duplication Backfires

Most developers blindly apply DRY to eliminate all code similarity, but this often leads to over-engineered abstractions that are harder to maintain. The principle actually concerns duplicated knowledge and intent, not duplicated appearance—conflating these two creates unnecessary complexity. Understanding when NOT to refactor is as important as knowing how to do it, and saves teams from technical debt and cognitive overload.