Showing posts with label simplicity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label simplicity. Show all posts
XP values - some quotes
the importance of living
Is an excellent book by Lin Yutang, isbn 978-0688163525.
As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:
In the West, the insane are so many that they are put in an asylum, in China the insane are so unusual that we worship them.
I consider the education of our senses and our emotions rather more important than the education of our ideas.
Only he who handles his ideas lightly is master of his ideas, and only he is master of his ideas is not enslaved by them.
A great man is he who has not lost the heart of a child.
Passion holds up the bottom of the world, while genius paints its roof.
The courage to be one's own natural self is quite a rare thing.
An Old Man was living with his Son at an abandoned fort on the top of a hill, and one day he lost a horse. The neighbours came to express their sympathy for his misfortune, and the Old Man asked, "How do you know this is bad luck?" A few days afterwards, his horse returned with a number of wild horses, and his neighbours came again to congratulate him on this stroke of fortune, and the Old Man replied, "How do you know this is good luck?" With so many horses around, his son began to take to riding, and one day he broke his leg. Again the neighbours came round to express their sympathy, and the Old Man replied, "How do you know this is bad luck?" The next year, there was a war, and because the Old Man's son was crippled, he did not have to go to the front.
The trouble with Americans is that when a thing is nearly right, they want to make it still better, while for a Chinese, nearly right is good enough.
When the chains of a bicycle are kept too tight, they are not conducive to the easiest running, and so with the human mind.
Tea in invented for quiet company as wine is invented for a noisy party.
Luxury and expensiveness are the things most to be avoided in architecture.
Taste then is closely associated with courage.
We must give up the idea that a man's knowledge can be tested or measured in any form whatsoever.
Only fresh fish may be cooked in its own juice; stale fish must be flavoured with anchovy sauce and pepper and mustard - the more the better.
The thing called beauty in literature and beauty in things depends so much on change and movement and is based on life. What lives always has change and movement, and what has change and movement naturally has beauty.
The Tao of Pooh
Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,
A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly.
Ask me a riddle and I reply:
Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.
It is useless to you only because you want to make it into something else and do not use it in its proper way.
One disease, long life; no disease, short life.
Unlike other forms of life, though, people are easily led away from what's right for them, because people have Brain, and Brain can be fooled. Inner Nature, when relied on, cannot be fooled. But many people do not look at it or listen to it, and consequently do not understand themselves very much. Having little understanding of themselves, they have little respect for themselves, and are therefore easily influenced by others.
For a long time they looked at the river beneath them, saying nothing, and the river said nothing too, for it felt very quiet and peaceful on this summer afternoon. [A.A.Milne]
I think therefore I am Confused.
All work and no play makes Backson a dull boy.
"But you should be something Important," I said.
"I am," said Pooh.
"Oh? Doing what?"
"Listening," he said.
the Bisy Backson Society, which practically worships youthful energy, appearance, and attitudes.
It's really fun to go somewhere where they are no timesaving devices because, when you do, you find that you have lots of time.
We are determined to be starved before we are hungry. [Henry David Thoreau]
From caring comes courage [Tao Te Ching]
...too many who think too much and care too little.
Consilience
is an excellent book by Edward O. Wilson (isbn 0-349-11112-X). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:
The first step to wisdom, as the Chinese say, is getting things by their right names.
The cost of scientific advance is the humbling recognition that reality was not constructed to be easily grasped by the human mind.
Analysis and synthesis, he [Goethe] liked to say, should be alternated as naturally as breathing in and breathing out.
Nothing in science - nothing in life, for that matter - makes sense without theory.
Complexity is what interests scientists in the end, not simplicity.
Consilience among the biological sciences is based on a thorough understanding of scale in time and space.
Complexity theory can be defined as the search for algorithms used in nature that display common features across many levels of organisation.
In a system containing perfect internal order, such as a crystal, there can be no further change.
The brain is a machine assembled not to understand itself, but to survive.
The biologist S. J. Singer has drily expressed the matter thus: I link, therefore I am.
No example of bias-free mental development has yet been discovered.
my kindle book-case
Here's a photo of the kindle I bought myself for Xmas.
When I bought my kindle I forgot to get a case to protect it. I searched around on a few sites looking for a case but didn't find anything I particularly liked. Before I knew it, it was time to head off to the awesome Agile Coach Camp Norway 2012. I wanted to take my kindle but needed a case to protect it. It was too late too order a case via the internet. But I had an idea. I could use a book! A regular old-fashioned hardback book.
I simply cut out a kindle-sized panel from the middle of about 100 pages and then glued the holed pages all together:
Viola, I have a case for my kindle. A book-case you might say.
I showed off my new book-case at the coach camp. It was a hit. At dinner one evening Marc Johnson mentioned he too has a kindle and loves it but misses the social aspect of a real book. The simple fact that most real books display the book's title on its front cover. People can see what you're reading. I sat next to a really interesting man on a plane once. He noticed I was reading Jerry Weinberg's Quality Software Management, vol 2, First-Order Measurement and asked me about it. We chatted away the whole flight.
My kindle book-case allows me to regain this missing social aspect. I can simply print the cover the publishers use for the real book and stick it to the front. So now I have something close to my ideal kindle case. It just needs a clear front cover sleeve so I can easily slide a cover in. And some kind of clasp. As a final bonus, I can pay homage to one of my favourite films:
When I bought my kindle I forgot to get a case to protect it. I searched around on a few sites looking for a case but didn't find anything I particularly liked. Before I knew it, it was time to head off to the awesome Agile Coach Camp Norway 2012. I wanted to take my kindle but needed a case to protect it. It was too late too order a case via the internet. But I had an idea. I could use a book! A regular old-fashioned hardback book.
I simply cut out a kindle-sized panel from the middle of about 100 pages and then glued the holed pages all together:
Viola, I have a case for my kindle. A book-case you might say.
I showed off my new book-case at the coach camp. It was a hit. At dinner one evening Marc Johnson mentioned he too has a kindle and loves it but misses the social aspect of a real book. The simple fact that most real books display the book's title on its front cover. People can see what you're reading. I sat next to a really interesting man on a plane once. He noticed I was reading Jerry Weinberg's Quality Software Management, vol 2, First-Order Measurement and asked me about it. We chatted away the whole flight.
My kindle book-case allows me to regain this missing social aspect. I can simply print the cover the publishers use for the real book and stick it to the front. So now I have something close to my ideal kindle case. It just needs a clear front cover sleeve so I can easily slide a cover in. And some kind of clasp. As a final bonus, I can pay homage to one of my favourite films:
Everyday heroes of the quality movement
is an excellent book by Perry Gluckman and Diana Reynolds Roome,
subtitled From Taylor to Deming : The Journey to Higher Productivity (isbn 0945320078).
As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:
Look for the flaws in the system not in each other.
When we reduce complexity, we start to see the organism behaving as a whole rather than a series of parts.
The effects of preventative medicine are hard to measure.
Theories are only the beginning. Why do we find it so hard to exercise, or give up smoking, even when we know all the arguments.
Quality and productivity are results, not goals.
Automating complexity is never as effective as removing it.
I'm not trying to be destructive. I just want to open the doors to some breezes that feel a little chilling to start with.
If there are problems in the company, we don't borrow money. We solve the problems.
If you automate without first getting rid of complexity, you cast the complexity in concrete.
We do almost nothing to control our workers productivity. They are already doing their best without being goaded. What we all try to control is the process itself.
You need to know your financial direction as far as it can be known, and make sure that you don't hit any big rocks. But something else is more important: to design the ship so that it can withstand the blows when they come.
Simple and Usable
is an excellent book by Giles Colborne (isbn 0-321-70354-5). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:
If you ask people they'll say everything is important and anything is feasible.
We tend to keep things, even when they're broken.
Your first design may seem like a solution, but it's usually just an early definition of the problem you are trying to solve. [Luke Wroblewski]
Broken gets fixed. Shoddy lasts forever. [Jack Moffett]
Feature lists sell so as long customers don't get a chance to use the product.
Mainstreamers want "good enough quickly;" experts want "perfect in as long as it takes."
People prefer to be pilots, not passengers.
"Seven plus or minus two." Many psychologists now believe short-term memory may be rather smaller - perhaps just four items.
Simple organization is about what feels good as you're using the software, not what looks logical in a plan.
Designing simple user experiences often turns out not to be about "How can I make this simple?" but rather "Where should I move the complexity?"
The secret to creating a simple user experience is to shift complexity into the right place, so that each moment feels simple.
Don't try to fill your user's mind with your design.
The XP question
What can you tell me about XP?
That's the question.
Take a moment to think about it.
What thoughts immediately pop into your head?
What words would you use if I was an alien and you were telling me about XP?
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Pair Programming is a common first choice. Also common are Testing (TDD), Refactoring, Collective Ownership. These are all fine things but notice that they're all directly related to the code. Programming the code in pairs, testing the code, refactoring the code, ownership of the code.
When I'm coaching or consulting I often ask the XP question. The overwhelmingly most common replies relate to the technical practices and not to the underlying values. I think that's a shame. I feel my understanding of XP's technical practices became much deeper when I thought about them in the light of XP's values.
Can you name the Four XP Values?
That's what the question is really about.
Can you name one XP Value?
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If you did name a value what was it?
Was it Simplicity or Feedback, the values with a technical aspect?
Or was it Courage or Communication, the values with a stronger social focus?
Reading chapter 7 of Kent's book it's clear to me that the four values are core to XP. Kent writes (my emphasis)...
We need some criteria for telling us if we're going in the right direction... Short term individual goals often conflict with long-term social goals. Societies have learned to deal with this problem by developing shared sets of values... Without these values, humans tend to revert back to their own short-term best interest.
The four values - communication, simplicity, feedback, and courage... tell us how software development should feel.
How you should feel!
Do those words surprise you?
How do you feel about your answer to the XP question?
Understanding comics - the invisible art
is an excellent book by Scott McCloud (isbn 0-06-097625-X). As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:
Do you hear what I'm saying? If you do, have your ears checked, because no one said a word.
For now I'm going to examine cartooning as a form of amplification through simplification.
Since cartoons already exists as concepts for the reader, they tend to flow easily through the conceptual territory between panels. Ideas flowing into one another seamlessly.
These first symbols - cartoons really - gradually evolved away from any resemblance to their subject, toward the highly abstracted forms of modern languages… and eventually to our totally abstract sound-based system.
The longer any form of art or communication exists, the more symbols it accumulates.
In this chapter, we've dealt with the invisible worlds of senses and emotions, but in fact all aspects of comics show it to be an art of the invisible.
The more an artist devotes him/herself to either of these two focal points (form and idea/purpose), the more dramatic the change if he/she decides to switch.
Symbols are the stuff of which gods are made.
All media of communication are a by-product of our sad inability to communicate directly from mind to mind. Sad, of course, because nearly all problems in human history stem from that inability.
The wall of ignorance that prevents so many human beings from seeing each other clearly can only be breached by communication. And communication is only effective when we understand the forms that communication can take.
The way of the leader
is an excellent book by Donald Krause (isbn 1-85788-137-0).
As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:
Do the essential things well: Be proactive (do through action), Reduce complexity (concentrate effort on the essential things), Seek improvement (get the essential things done better).
We can never know everything there is to know about a complex process… The knowledge that we really need to optimise a complex process is unknowable. Therefore, we can only approach optimisation a little bit at a time as our understanding grows.
Battles are won by great execution, not by great plans! Great execution can save a mediocre plan; poor execution will always ruin a great plan. [George Patton]
A person who practices self-discipline and continuously develops his level of skill seldom fails in the long term.
Listen carefully. Observe closely.
When the chips are down, the main question is not how you go about meeting your objectives, but whether you succeed in doing so.
For an effective leader, determination is more important than intellect.
Perfection is the enemy of effectiveness.
The art of leadership is an art based on simplicity, and all success is rooted in performance.
Learn by observing the behaviour of other people. If you observe good behaviour, copy it. If you observe bad behaviour, look for the same behaviour in yourself and eliminate it.
There is no surer road to disaster than to fit past solutions, however successful, to current situations.
Discipline is not intended to kill character, enthusiasm, and initiative, but to develop them.
Minimize form and maximise substance.
It is better to be alone than in bad company.
It has been just so in all my inventions. The first step is intuition - and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise... Persistence is the key [Thomas Edison]
Character is a habit. It is created through the daily choice of right and wrong. It is a moral quality which grows gradually to maturity. It does not appear suddenly.
Barbel fishing on the River Wye
Caught on sweetcorn on the Whitehouse beat. What a beautiful river. And what a beautiful fish.
The tao of business
is an excellent book by Ansgar Gerstner (isbn 978-988-18154-7-7).
As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:
Taoism emphasizes compassion, spontaneity, and respect for nature.
Taoism believes in a kind of self-organizing system, that there are patterns to the world and its affairs, and that it is best to let these patterns operate without interference.
Wuwei is closely linked with this idea. In order to be able to apply wuwei - to "act by not acting" - you need good intuition and instinct and be excellent at sensing what is going on.
You have to be careful to recognize the limitations of your knowledge and not interfere with processes in the false belief that you completely understand a situation and can predict precisely the outcome of a certain action.
The point of karaoke is not singing, which is almost always awful. It is getting to know your partners.
The focus in the Daodejing is not "adding", it is on "reducing".
It is often the fear of losing control that makes people add issues and complexities to a situation.
Keeping things simple is an art. And, as with any art, simplicity needs to be cultivated.
You will not be dealing with the abstract notion of a business, but with real individuals.
What makes water "invincible" is that nothing can change its inherent quality of utmost adaptability and agility.
An effective way to maintain flexibility and with it creativity, is to foster a learning culture in your business.
It is important in all kinds of contexts not to hold on to things too tightly.
The four XP values
Quite by chance I've notice several recent blog entry quotes mention the four XP values:
- Communication: Community has to do with communication.
- Simplicity: The art of maximizing the amount of work not done.
- Feedback: Practicing without feedback is like bowling through a curtain that hangs down to knee level.
- Courage: One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how relatively few people understand what courage is. The absence of fear is not courage; the absence of fear is some kind of brain damage. Courage is the capacity to go ahead in spite of fear.
Safer C
is an excellent book by Les Hatton. As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:
A central and hard-earned engineering principle in older engineering areas such as mechanical engineering and civil engineering is that simplicity rules.
The way to improve seems to be to master one thing at a time by doing a lot of it until quality naturally emerges.
Quality is not a flag in the company car park.
This book will argue forcibly that there is a property of software which experienced programmers can identify with quality without knowing the function of the software.
The more art is controlled, limited, worked over, the more it is free. [Igot Stravinksy]
Early versions of a number of Beethoven's pieces exist and give strong evidence of being written by a mere mortal; indeed, some are extraordinarily naive. Greatness emerged only after considerable refinement.
a profoundly important step in the maturity of a discipline is the enforcement of hard-learned previous experience and the recognition that complexity must be strictly controlled to that which necessary and no more.
A human programmer reads a programming language just as a compiler does. Therefore, languages that are difficult to write compilers for are likely to be difficult to read if those features that cause difficulty are used.
the content is more important than the style.
The author has always believed, however, that if something is statically detectable and therefore easily removeable, but likely to fail only once in the lifetime of the galaxy, it should be removed, because that occurrence might be next week and might kill someone. If its presence is known and its implications understood, it may well be negligent in the eyes of the law to leave it.
You can't test quality into software.
Simplicity
is a great book by Edward De Bono. As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:
An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgements simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.
Simplicity means focused effort.
The human brain is a very simple system that is capable of working in a complex way, rather than a complex system.
Simplicity is a unification around a purpose.
The main aim of communication is clarity and simplicity.
Because [valuable] ideas are 'logical' in hindsight, we have always believed that they could have been reached by logic, with no need for creativity. This has been the prevalent belief and it is totally false.
Much more important than simplicity as a value is simplicity as a habit.
Simplicity before understanding is simplistic; simplicity after understanding is simple.
Simplistic often means jumping from an observed phenomenon to a direct and simple explanation, missing out all the true complexity of the situation.
The purpose of concepts is to breed concrete alternatives for action.
There is no one right answer that suits all situations. It is a matter of being aware of possibilities and then designing an approach that fits a particular need.
Patterns of Software
is the title of a truly excellent book by Richard Gabriel. I reread this every year or so. Each time it speaks to me with new depth and wisdom.
As usual I'm going to quote from a few pages:
My overall bias is that technology science, engineering and company organization are all secondary to the people and human concerns in the endeavor.
Compression is that characteristic of a piece of language in which each word assumes many meanings and derives its meaning from the context.
What [D'Arcy] Thompson insisted on was that every form is basically the end result of a certain growth process.
The process of software construction is the single most important determining factor in software quality.
Methodologists who insist of separating analysis and design from coding are missing the essential features of design: The design is in the code, not in a document or in a diagram.
Poincaré; once said: "Sociologists discuss sociological methods [not sociology]; physicists discuss physics [not physics methods]." I love this statement. Study of method by itself is always barren.
Study software, not software methods.
If we hope to make buildings in which the rooms and buildings feel harmonious; we too, must make sure that the structure is correct down to 1/8th of an inch.
To get wholeness, you must try instead to strive for this kind of perfection, where things that don't matter are left rough and unimportant, and the things that really matter are given deep attention.
Without large structure, the design cannot hold together; it becomes merely a jumble of isolated design elements.
The nature of a system is such that at almost granularity it looks the same; it is a system.
In the modern era, we have come to favor simplicity over complexity, perfection over imperfection, symmetry over asymmetry, planning over piecemeal growth, and design awards over habitability. Yet if we look at the art we love and the music, the buildings, towns, and houses, the ones we like have the quality without a name, not the deathlike morphology of clean design.
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