As I get older the simpler things seem so much more attractive - for example a recent project is using lists of dicts (python base base base types) because it's simple and easy to think about. It's recently got to the stage where "we should use pandas dataframes" is entering my brain, but it has meant that we focused on the business issues of handling the data not the issues of a large third party code base (even a well run well thought out one)
Maintenance starts with not adding complexity to your code
I agree, with a caveat: don't do dumb things performance-wise.
The other day I worked with a Lisp code base that used built-in lists for math-heavy code. The result had garbage performance and even looked less readable than proper array-based code that loops on stuff imperatively.
As I get older the simpler things seem so much more attractive - for example a recent project is using lists of dicts (python base base base types) because it's simple and easy to think about. It's recently got to the stage where "we should use pandas dataframes" is entering my brain, but it has meant that we focused on the business issues of handling the data not the issues of a large third party code base (even a well run well thought out one)
Maintenance starts with not adding complexity to your code