John wants to read Design for a Brain by William Ross Ashby
Referenced in chapter 28 of the systems bible
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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 quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall
Content warning How not to solve problems
In the face of [problems that are not simple], persistence in information gathering is not uncommonly used as a means of not dealing with a problem
— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 117)
This is, perhaps, the most common tool I’ve observed for delaying software work
John wants to read This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love in …
John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall
Content warning Section D 20
In contrast, a poorly–functioning system begins to generate increasing numbers of messages, often shaped around such questions as “what went wrong?“, “How far along is task X? “, And especially, “why don’t we have better feedback? “ As a system sinks deeper and deeper into the morass of unfinished tasks, the business of exchanging messages expands, exponentially, until at last the non-functioning system is completely occupied with its own internal communication processes.
— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 105 - 106)
John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall
Content warning Section D 19
Every picture tells the story – but not the same story. … The meaning of a communication is the behavior that results.
— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 100)
Well, simple and it’s construction. This fact has taken me nearly all my 30 years to understand, and I’m not quite convinced that I have finished.
John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall
Content warning Section C 17
We conclude: colossal Steven’s foster colossal errors. Indeed, in such settings: colossal errors tend to escape notice - and, if noticed, may even be excused.
— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 89)
John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall
Content warning Section C 16
As the system becomes ever more highly specialized, the simplest tasks mysteriously become too difficult.
— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 86)
John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall
Content warning Section C 11
A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.
— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 63)
This has been true in my experience as well. Often, the growth in complexity leads to fear of loss of features, but starting with something simple and adding complexity is the only way to produce stable results.
A “feature complete rewrite” is a fools errand. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try new things. Instead we should try new, simple, things when the system becomes too complex to work in.
John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall
Rhoe’s theorem: designers of systems tend to design ways for themselves to bypass the system
— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 57)
John commented on The Systems Bible by John Gall
Section A provides an excellent foundation for thinking about systems beyond understanding. I am eager to see how this is applied in section B.
John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall
Content warning Section A.6
Systems tend to malfunction conspicuously just after their greatest triumph
— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 31)
John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall
Content warning Section A.4
Or he may not write any papers at all, devoting the time instead to a book for which the idea has matured unexpectedly. In that case his “success is zero. No matter that he’s over achieved in an unexpected area. If the chief wants to get rid of him. He need only point out his “failure”.
— The Systems Bible by John Gall (Page 27)
This is a critique of measured systems that has long plagued me. The requirement to define success criteria ahead of time, especially in areas where the outcomes are unknown, is deeply disturbing and often counterproductive.
John commented on The Systems Bible by John Gall
I am really enjoying the short, succinct, chapter structure so far!
John quoted The Systems Bible by John Gall
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
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)