Abstraction is awesome. And abstraction is awful. Too little, and our applications are difficult to extend and maintain. Too much, and our applications are difficult to extend and maintain. Finding the balance is the key to success. The first step is to identify your natural tendency as an under-abstractor or an over-abstractor. Once we know that, we can work on real-world techniques to dial in the level of abstraction that is "just right" for our applications.