The Zen of Programming

The Zen of Programming. Jim Waldo via the Bright Eyed Mr Zen. [Quote] …. all require that the programmer change …. we need to give up a measure of control and accept that we cannot have full knowledge of the systems we are building …. we will know is a minimum set of behaviors …. over time the system will change in ways we could not have foreseen. Just as Socrates found that he was the wisest of men because he knew that he didn’t know anything (as opposed to others, who thought they knew something but were wrong), programmers must come to the realization that their knowledge of systems will be more and more Socratic. Rather than knowing everything, we will know what it is that we do not know …. the result will be more reliable, more flexible and more dynamic than the systems ….[Unquote]

The Intentional Stance

Started reading Daniel Dennet – The Intentional Stance last night. A collection of his essays old and new, as a prelude to his forthcoming book on mind and consciousness. Good read so far and looking like a good introduction to this important writer that I’ve not read so far. Instant reinforcement of motivation or purpose being the prime axis of any model of real knowledge – the main thread I guess. Quote of a quote that caught my eye (in view of the string theory reference below) along the lines of “the dreams that stuff is made of”. Very much from the many a true word camp of ironic aphorisms.

Lifecycle of a Big Idea

Lifecycle of a Big Idea. Sally Bean via Knowledge Board. Can’t quite get my head round the concept of “Open Space” events in the originating article – sounds just like TQM Brainstroming to me – but this is at least amusing.

Intersting article also from KB – “Generations of Knowledge Management” tries to counteract the “bandwagon” effect of constant re-invention of new generations KM. Good content sources – but the article knocks too much and synthesises too little for me. Anyway at least no-one argues that human interaction is not the key component of knowledge.

The Beach at Scheveningen

The Beach at Scheveningen. Thanks to Adam Curry for this BBC link. A bit of a tortuous one, but the beach at Scheveningen is a place I’ve spent many a knowledge modelling moment in recent years, meeting generic information modellers in Den Haag / The Hague.