Two anecdotes from StackOverflow founder Joel Spolsky, on how Google and Amazon wrote elegant software that balances simplicity and power.

Audio: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/business-of/ep-70-simplicity-vs-value-in-YaRkM5T41IN/ (45mins in)
Talk video: https://businessofsoftware.org/2009/01/joel-spolsky-at-business-of-software-2009-video/

Oct 2021 update - I snipped it here: https://youtu.be/-QqIyICyXbU