In Dynamics in Action, Alicia Juarrero describes human action as a selection, a sample, from probability space. Everything we could do, and the likelihood of each, is a function of our situation, our habits, and our intentions. From this we select some action in each moment. Karl Popper calls these possible actions propensities, and he … Read moreProbability Spaces as reality
It takes more than one skill to be useful these days. Development, communication, writing, interviewing, management, business — these skills don’t do anything by themselves. Developing what? communicating what? Which business? You need a domain of expertise to apply these abstract skills to. I can’t communicate what I don’t understand. Nor develop good software in … Read moreOne skill is not enough
The other day there was a tweet about a Chief Happiness Officer. Later someone remarked about their Agile Transformation Office. It seems like we (as a culture) think that we can add qualities to systems the way we add ingredients to a recipe. Systems, especially symmathesies, aren’t additive! Agility, happiness, these are spread throughout the … Read moreAdding qualities to systems
I begin to wonder whether I am mad or have hit on an idea which is much bigger than I am. Gregory Bateson As someone who grew up in a religion and then let go of it in my mid-twenties, it’s easy to say, religion is a useless fiction that persists because a powerful group … Read moreHow religion is important
Gregory Bateson talks about distinct levels of learning. From behavior to enlightenment, each level represents change in the previous level. Zero Learning: this is behavior, responding in the way you always do. The bell rings, oh it’s lunchtime, eat. This does not surprise you, so you just do the usual thing. Learning I: this is … Read moreFive levels of learning
We can develop things faster than we can define them. @jryanday I’ve remarked before that @cdupuis can implement new features way faster than I can document them. This is not ridiculous; creating something is often faster than connecting it to existing people who can use it. Ryan took this farther: we can’t even define what … Read moreDesign by implementation
Distance is seriously strange. Yesterday on the southern coast of Spain, at an Italian restaurant run by a German, I had tiramisu, because I’ve never had tiramisu this close to Italy. People laughed, because Spain is farther from Italy than Germany or Poland (geographically) – but for food purposes it’s closer, right? Geographic distance is … Read moreDistance outside of maps
Today at J on the Beach, Helena Edelson talked about a lot of things that Akka can do for event streaming, microservices, generally handling a lot of data and keeping it (eventually) consistent across great distances. With opt-in causal consistency! I am amazed by how hard it is to have consistent causality and data across … Read morePredictability is hard, surprises are everywhere
Today Avdi tweeted about this lovely article debunking “strong ideas, loosely held”.The gist is, yo! stop talking like you’re sure about stuff. It makes it hard for other people to chime in, and it anchors you, making it hard to let go of your opinion.The simple trick is to quantify your certainty, below 100%. “I’m … Read moreStrong Opinions Strongly Overrated