ARTICLES

Farmer Meditation

I summarize NASCAR as “A bunch of good ol’ boys. Drive fast. Turn left.” The locals tend to have a different view, so I usually keep mine to myself. However I have borrowed the “turn left” for my benefit.

The Software Cynic

I found the following in some notes from October 2000. I don’t remember why I made the observations.

It Looks Good From Here

We stopped and looked at the first rapid on the first river from the bridge. I distinctly remember saying, “It looks good from here.” And it did. What I didn’t see …

Now, What is Change?

Re-reading my blog titles occasionally leads to interesting thoughts. Many titles mention change, and most entries have something to do with change. But after all these entries no one has asked me, “Don, what do you mean ‘change’?”. Until recently, I haven’t asked me either.

So, What is a System?

I’m working backwards. I started this entry on defining change. Then I realized change can’t exist without systems. So, what is a system? I like the following (heavily inspired by Systems Thinking Basics: From Concepts to Causal Loops)

Single Point Requirements

The take home lesson we learned, “Don’t accept a single example for requirements that cover a class.” We even referred to ensuing similar requests (from them and other clients) as “Oh yeah, it’s the simple case of A500.”