Systems can be simple, complicated, complex, or chaotic… but even that model is too simple, because they can also be all of these at once! Notes:

In 1964, Joseph Weizenbaum created the famous "ELIZA" program, with which a human user could hold a simulated "therapy" session. The implications of the human reactions to ELIZA and later research inspired Weizenbaum to write one of the formative cautionary reflections on ethics in artificial intelligence. Today, as ChatGPT storms the world, this book is more relevant than ever.

In this episode, selections from Chapter 2 of The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America. Notes Transcript This is the Cache Flush, a programmer’s audio scrapbook. This is episode 11, recorded Sunday, April 30th, 2023. Today I have some selections from chapter two of the Closed World Computers and […]

A semi-reboot of the show. I'll be reading selections from my "software humanities" library - books and papers at the intersection of code and history, psychology, politics, ethics, ecology, and systems thinking.

Booknotes from Domain-Driven Design and Reactive Design Patterns, and some notes on mentorship vs sponsorship.

Thoughts on strong opinions and terms for complexity; some booknotes from Reactive Design Patterns and Domain-Driven Design; notes from Jessica Kerr.

Booknotes on Domain Driven Design, and conversations with Jessica Kerr about silver bullets and why your own codebase always feels full of holes.

Musings on the over-use of the term “impostor syndrome”, what it means to persist an object, and some booknotes on “Understanding Systems”.

Musings on the over-use of the term "impostor syndrome", what it means to persist an object, and some booknotes on "Understanding Systems".

A conversation I had with Jessica Kerr, who says that when it comes to change, technical debt is not our biggest obstacle.