Overanalyzed

Education or Ineducation

I’ve been bugged for years over this problem of inventing things that already exist.

For example, I may spend a great deal of time working on a concept, and arrive at an inventive solution, only to discover, when telling someone else about it, that it’s already been invented.

I myself have done that to others, told them their ideas already exist. I know Jeffy’s come up with a few.

After my most recent encounter with this problem, while working with a NAT traversal technique, I became annoyed at my education.

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Steady-state economy

I’ve been wondering lately about what the steady state of the American dream is. What are the unavoidable outcomes if every player in the game is following that strategy?

Seems to me that there’s a finite number of lawns to mow. There are economies of scale, and it’s well known that when providing a service or doing business, that results in a natural monopoly.

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“It just works”

There’s been a lot of talk about “It Just Works” lately, probably due to the renewed popularity of the Mac platforms. I recall quite a few “just works” promises in the past. Plug and Play was supposed to be that. Heck, the very meaning of the phrase is almost identical.

The problem with “It Just Works” is “It Just Doesn’t”.

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Designing software

My own experience has been that one should shoot for simplicity, treat the business rules differently than design rules, and don’t put your data in your program. I prefer a toolbox approach, when you take it to the multiple subsystem level.
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Work Smarter not Harder

I hear that a lot. Or I used to. Now it seems like I mostly hear “work more”.

That’s not the point. Today it struck me how weird the phrases “work harder” and “work smarter” really are.

What’s your work? Mine is largely coding and software design, minus the social tax of meetings.

So there’s a pretty simple variable substitution. “Code harder”. Which sounds insane. It’s almost meaningless. “Design harder”.
What about smarter? “code smarter” or “design smarter”. Seems like a Good Thing. Totally opposed to KISS, so maybe not.

How “smart” should code or design be? Do you really want bobs_memcpy()? Class MemoryCopier? Seems to me that it should be as simple as it can be and get the job done, and no simpler. Sound familiar?

Asking for smarter code is asking for clever tricks. Asking for smarter design is asking for higher-altitude standards. Doesn’t seem like a very good idea to me.