- **Epistemic status:** #seedlings The Easier to Change (ETC) principle states that if something is designed well, it can adapt to the people who use it. You can see this principle in action on other principles when learning to design better software: - Decoupling is a good standard because isolating concerns makes it easier to change. - Single responsibility is a good standard because a change in requirements are mirrored by a change in one module. - Good names make code easier to read, easier to read means that it is easier to update. When adopting this principle, you will need to remind yourself on purpose, but overtime becomes second nature. You can ask questions some of these example questions while designing to help you get started: - Can this code be replaced easily? - Will it become a roadblock in the future? - Is my code handling more than one responsibility? - Can my code be broken into other pieces? --- ## References - Thomas, David, and Andrew Hunt. _The Pragmatic Programmer, 20th Anniversary Edition: Journey to Mastery_. Second edition. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2019.