{"id":8538,"date":"2014-12-07T11:28:34","date_gmt":"2014-12-07T10:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.combatconsulting.com\/?p=357"},"modified":"2022-12-30T14:57:15","modified_gmt":"2022-12-30T13:57:15","slug":"kevin-kelly-on-design-and-the-scientific-method","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/kevin-kelly-on-design-and-the-scientific-method\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Kelly on design and the Scientific Method"},"content":{"rendered":"

[I noticed I had 36 posts in the drafts folder some dating back years. It can be quite fascinating to see what had your attention years ago. This one, last edited in March 2009, is just collection of notes for a post, but there were some gems from Kevin Kelly]<\/em><\/p>\n

Totally engrossed in the subject of resources and pipeline management, information design, intermediate technology and dashboard design<\/p>\n

“n-Dimentional gigantic hypercube of all the possible solutions to how to design the things and we are just wondering around trying to find the best one.” –\u00a0 Stack Overflow podcast<\/p>\n

How do committees invent?<\/p>\n

In a discussion on Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Kevin Kelly made this observation:<\/p>\n

Consider a parallel with software design:<\/p>\n

* Statement of requirements
\n* [ architect\/design
\n* [ implement\/test
\n* deliver<\/p>\n

That is, Scientific Method consists of a statement of the
\nproblem, followed by a repetition of: generate hypotheses
\nand perform experiments to test hypotheses, followed by
\nFrom Pirsig’s description of Scientific Method:<\/p>\n

* Statement of problem
\n* [ hypothesis
\n* [ experiment
\n* conclusion<\/p>\n

a conclusion. Software design can be considered to be a
\nStatement of requirements, followed by a repetition of:
\ngenerate a proposed design then implement and test it;
\nfollowed by delivery of the final system.<\/p>\n

Now, Pirsig goes into the fact that what seems like it
\nshould be the hardest part–generating viable hypotheses–
\nin practice turns out to be the easiest. In fact, there’s
\nno end to them; the act of exploring one hypothesis brings
\nto mind a multitude of others. The harder you look, the
\nmore you find. It is an open, not a closed, system.<\/p>\n

I would suggest that this correspondence holds: that
\nthe set of possible designs to meet the requirements is
\ninfinite; that the act of generating a design brings to
\nmind multiple alternatives; that generating a design
\nincreases, rather than decreases, the set of possible
\nalternative designs.<\/p>\n

This is argument by analogy and therefore not particularly
\nforceful, but I feel certain, myself, that it holds. It
\ncertainly feels right, intuitively. I think it ties in
\nwith Goedel’s work on decidability: that any sufficiently
\ncomplex system–which any programming language is–is able
\nto say more than it can prove. Thus there’s always another
\nhypothesis that might give better answers; there’s always
\nanother design that might solve the problem better. There’s
\nalways room for an architect that can pull the magic out
\nof the clouds.<\/p>\n

That last bit ties in to a point I’d like to expand on. That
\nis, that all formalisms, or design methodologies, are in
\nsome way limiting. By adhering strictly to a particular
\ndesign process, you forego the gains that come from
\ninventing a new, better process.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, you also ‘forego’ the time lost on ideas
\nthat don’t work out.<\/p>\n

Process or methodology is a means of getting a Ratchet Effect,
\nor Holding The Gains. It’s a way of applying
\na pattern of development to other, related, projects.
\nThere needs to be a way of allowing for new developments
\nand ideas, though.<\/p>\n

“There’s no one more qualified to modify a system than
\nthe last person to work on it”. That seems counter-
\nintuitive; one would think that the people that created
\nit understand it best. However, they’ve moved on to
\nother things, while the later maintainers got the
\nbenefit of all the original designers’ work plus,
\nin addition, all that was later learned about the
\nsystem, such as how it reacts to the customers, and
\nhow it responds to maintenance.<\/p>\n

Software design is made up partly of flashing new insights,
\nand partly of routine solutions that have been invented over
\nand over again. Codifying patterns is a way of ratcheting
\nthe whole community up to near the level of the leaders, at
\nleast in terms of the routine solutions.<\/p>\n

It’s still necessary to allow for the insights, though. A
\nlot of the big-company emphasis on process ignores this, assuming
\nthat nothing is ever new, and that the answers of yesterday
\nare good enough for tomorrow.<\/p>\n

(this is turning into a pretty good rant, but I think I’ll
\ncut it off for now)<\/p>\n

— KevinKelley – http:\/\/clublet.com\/why?ZenAndTheArtOfMotorcycleMaintenance<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Dec 2014: Sadly Clublet.com is not working, and archive.org has no archive of this page]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[I noticed I had 36 posts in the drafts folder some dating back years. It can be quite fascinating to see what had your attention years ago. This one, last edited in March 2009, is just collection of notes for a post, but there were some gems from Kevin Kelly] Totally engrossed in the subject … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[142,149,14,17,22,1],"tags":[300,296],"class_list":["post-8538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devops","category-management","category-philosophy","category-science","category-tech-internet","category-uncategorized","tag-processed","tag-published"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prY0k-2dI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5408,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/analysis-second-order-effects-and-black-swans\/","url_meta":{"origin":8538,"position":0},"title":"Analysis, Second Order Effects and Black Swans","author":"Limbic","date":"November 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The current default algorithm for testing new technologies is the Precautionary Principle. 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