Good APIs Age Slowly

Good APIs are not defined by elegance at launch but by how well they hold up over time. The key insight is that most API problems stem from poor boundary decisions: exposing too much, embedding hidden assumptions, or mirroring transient UI shapes. Once consumers see something, they rely on it regardless of intent. The advice is to expose as little as possible, prefer boring and explicit over clever and convenient, avoid coupling APIs to current frontend structures, and understand that versioning doesn't compensate for fundamentally unstable design. Stable APIs reduce coordination costs and become trusted infrastructure rather than a source of ongoing friction.