OO is a Lie People Tell Themselves to Pretend That They're Smart

Object-oriented programming has become a cargo cult in software development, where developers follow OOP practices without understanding why.

The Promise vs. Reality

OOP promised to make code more maintainable, reusable, and easier to understand. In practice, it often delivers the opposite.

Common OOP Failures

Over-Engineering

Creating elaborate class hierarchies for simple problems.

Premature Abstraction

Building abstractions before understanding the problem domain.

Inheritance Hell

Deep inheritance chains that make code hard to understand and modify.

The God Object

Classes that do too much and violate the single responsibility principle.

When OOP Works

OOP isn't inherently bad, but it's often misapplied:

• UI Components: Objects map well to visual components
• Domain Modeling: When you have clear entities with behaviors
• Frameworks: When you need consistent interfaces

When OOP Doesn't Work

• Simple Scripts: Adding classes to a 50-line script
• Functional Problems: Data transformation pipelines
• Stateless Operations: Pure functions don't need classes

Better Alternatives

Functional Programming

Immutable data structures and pure functions often lead to cleaner code.

Procedural Programming

Sometimes a simple function is all you need.

Composition Over Inheritance

Build complex behaviors by combining simple pieces.

The Real Problem

OOP isn't the problem—it's the dogmatic application of OOP principles without considering the context.

The Solution

Choose the right tool for the job. Sometimes that's OOP, sometimes it's functional programming, sometimes it's just a simple script.

Stop using OOP to prove you're smart. Use it when it actually solves a problem.