Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. This is the OODA loop, first recognized in fighter pilots and then in the Toyota Production System. It represents every choice of action in humans and higher level systems: take in sensory data, form a model of the world, choose the next action, make a change in the world. At least … Read moreMostly we orient
We see with our brains. Then we check with our eyes. Our retina takes in light, varying by brightness and color. It transmits information along the optical nerve to the primary visual cortex. There, specialized cells activate on outlines and contours in various orientations (horizontal, vertical, oblique). This part of the brain separates objects from … Read moreBrains and eyes: hierarchies in vision
Sometimes in software design we get this idea, “We’ll make this a rule engine. Then the business can write the rules, and they’ll be able to change them without changing the code. That’ll make it more flexible.” 🤣 The rules are code; they change the behavior of the system. Rules interact in ways that are … Read moreRules are not easy
Sometimes I think about, what if aliens kept humans as pets? Raised them from babies in isolation, without human language, without society. What would a human be like, outside of other humans? Not a person. As Abeba Birhane points out beautifully in her talk at NCrafts and article in Aeon, we aren’t people alone. We … Read moreHuman, or Person
In Dungeons & Dragons (the tabletop game), there are universal laws. These are published in the Player’s Guide. They set parameters for the characters, like how powerful they should be relative to monsters. The Player’s Guide outlines weapons, combat procedures, and success rates. It describes spells, what they do and how long they last. What … Read moreRules in context: D&D edition
The most mentally straining part of programming (for me) is focusing down on the detail of a line of code while maintaining perspective on why we are doing this at all. When a particular implementation gets hard, should I keep going? back up a step and redesign? or back way up and solve the problem … Read moreZooming in and out, for software and love
Des Cartes looked for certainty because he wanted good grounds for knowledge, a place of fixity to build on, to make predictions. Juarrero counters that uncertainty allows for novelty and individuation. In software, we like to aim for certainty. Correctness. Except in machine learning or AI; we don’t ask or expect our algorithms to be … Read moreCertainty, Uncertainty, or the worst of both
Today, another tweet about “how can I write the cleanest, best architected code?” gets piles of book references in response. Yes, we want to be good at writing code. We want to write the best code. The best code for what? “Writing code” is an abstraction, like a transitive verb without an object. I can’t … Read moreThe next architecture book you must read
What makes software hard to change? As a developer, it’s easy to focus on the internal properties of the software system. The code needs refactored, the framework is old, we need more tests, or else fewer tests. If your software is in production, these are not the biggest obstacle to change. The important changes are … Read moreInertia in the interface
Soft skills are hard. “They take work to build and work to apply.” @ruthmalan The word “hard” describes sciences like physics and chemistry. It is confusing that “hard” can mean difficult, because these sciences aren’t more difficult than the “soft” ones like sociology and anthropology. They’re differently difficult. The “hard” sciences are hard because they’re … Read moreSoft, or hard like mud