Every level is different
I wanted it to be turtles all the way down. (where turtles are objects, or functions)
But it isn’t…
Systems Thinking
To grow, yet not to control
Giving birth and nourishing,making without possessing,expecting nothing in return.To grow, yet not to control:This is the mysterious virtue. Lau Tzu, Tao Te Ching Can we make software, and care for it in productionwithout feeling possessive of our code? The software gives us nothing back. It could emit events for us. If we listen to its …
Being a responsible subsystem
As developers, we build systems. Right? We build software that stays up (in aggregate) and performs functions. Sure, sure. Is that system useful by itself? I say never. When your team builds a service that adds a capability to the business, and it’s called by other internal software, then that other software is essential for …
Reaction to the Tool
“Teams use CheckMarx to make their code more secure.” CheckMarx is a tool that analyzes code, looking for vulnerabilities. It produces a report of likely problems, with specific locations in the source code. “We will mandate that our teams use CheckMarx.” Will this make the code more secure? That depends how the team reacts to …
Control from within
As a manager, I want to tell a team what I need and they make it. Is that too much to ask? It depends what you mean by “tell.” Without the information we need, work is like “Bring me a stone.” In this game, the Boss says to the Worker, “Bring me a stone.” The …
Clockwork to Complexity: scale in time and software
Software is completely clockwork at the scale of one function, and completely complex in production.
Code is a coastline
Code is like a coastline: the closer you look, the farther from here to there. Can we diminish this effect?
Aircraft Carriers and Paper Airplanes
What’s more valuable, a big old company with assets, or a small nimble company with ideas?
Stupidity can be a plus in corporations — but not in software development.
Functional stupidity is: don’t self-reflect, don’t ask why, and only think about what we ask you to think about. This can be good in corporate-land. It is a disaster for software.