I think the viewpoint articulated in this post fits quite well with the one expressed in the often-shared "Programming as Theory-building" article (I think it was shared here just a few days ago).

Scientists, mathematicians, and software engineers are all really doing similar things: they want to understand something, be it a physical system, an abstract mathematical object, or a computer program. Then, they use some sort of language to describe that understanding, be it casual speech, formal mathematical rigor, scientific jargon -- or even code.

In fact, thinking about it, the code specifying a program is just a human-readable description (or "theory", perhaps) of the behavior of that program, precise and rigorous enough that a computer can convert the understanding embodied in that code into that actual behavior. But, crucially, it's human readable: the reason we don't program in machine code is to maximize our and other people's understanding of what exactly the program (or system) does.

From this perspective, when we write code, articles, etc., we should be highly focused on whether our intended audience would even understand what we are writing (at least, in the way that we, the writer, seem to). Thinking about cognitive load seems to be good, because it recognizes this ultimate objective. On the other hand, principles like DRY -- at least when divorced from their original context -- don't seem to implicitly recognize this goal, which is why they can seem unsatisfactory (to me at least). Why shouldn't I repeat myself? Sometimes it is better to repeat myself!? When should I repeat myself??

If you want to see an example of a fabulous mathematician expressing the same ideas in his field (with much better understanding and clarity than I could ever hope to achieve), I highly recommend Bill Thurston's article "On proof and progress in mathematics" <https://arxiv.org/abs/math/9404236>.

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