Although I had done some programming before, I always remember the first lecture of the first year of the CS course I did where the lecturer basically concentrated on the importance of KISS (i.e. Keep It Simple Stupid). He did say that we'd probably not believe him, and of course we didn't as we were all desperate to prove how awfully clever we were. He did also say that if we stuck at things long enough we'd probably come to share his view.

How I wished I'd manage to believe that bit of advice a bit earlier in my career and saved a few projects from my zealous architectural astronautics. Well, at least that's one lesson I did eventually learn.