User Profile

John

Joined 11 months, 4 weeks ago

Pronouns: he/him

Just a guy floating around the fediverse, hoping to read some fun stuff along the way. Check out my mastodon too: @cd24@sfba.social

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John's books

Currently Reading

Cixin Liu: The Three-Body Problem (Hardcover, 2014, Tor Books)

Alastair Reynolds: Century Rain (Paperback, Orbit)

Brandon Sanderson: Wind and Truth (2024, Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom)

2024 Reading Goal

60% complete! John has read 6 of 10 books.

User Activity

John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall

John Gall: The Systems Bible (Paperback, 2002, General Systemantics Pr/Liberty)

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Content warning Section A.3

A large system, produced by expanding the dimensions of a smaller system, does not behave like the smaller system

— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 24)

I have found this to be a common failure mode of protocol and systems design in software as well. We often try to maintain the assumptions, capacities and the operation of adding features or performing maintenance on small systems when either the system grows in complexity or the team operating on them expands in count or geography.

John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall

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Content warning Section A.3

There is a world of difference, psychologically speaking, between the passive observation that Things Don’t Work Out Very Well and the active, penetrating insight that complex systems exhibit unexpected behavior.

— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 22)

John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall

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Content warning Definition in A.1

Anergy. Anergy-state. Any state or condition of the universe, or of any portion of it, that requires the expenditure of human effort or ingenuity to bring it into line with human desires, needs, or pleasures is defined as an Anergy-state. Anergy is measured in units of effort required to bring about the desired change.

— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 14)

John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall

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Content warning Section A.1

Large systems usually operate in failure mode.

— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 13 - 14)

Presented in the context of garbage collection systems adding new problems to the original issue of “what do we do with all this garbage?”

John commented on The Systems Bible by John Gall

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The preface and introduction are long winded, but numerous

John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall

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a System, after all, is a partial intelligence; it participates in the great mind of the universe; and unless we are ourselves have a direct pipeline into that mind, we had jolly better watch our step

— The Systems Bible by John Gall

Part of the preface to the third edition. I’m finding the authors tone towards systems to be humorous and stark. I can see how others would read the demons into the work, but the authors position couldn’t be more salient.

John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall

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Some of the later Chapters, if read uncritically, could even lead to a sort of optimism regarding Man’s ultimate ability to rise charge of Systems.. The reader is hereby warned that any such optimism is the readers own responsibility.

— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page xxii)

Part of the preface to the second edition