Our own ‘third culture’

When I reflect on what I think I know about software (what it is, how it is created, how it is industrialized at large scale, how it is evolved, how it is relevant to current civilization, how it will be even more relevant in most likely futures, etc.), I accept that my views are limited by my own professional path and by my own mix of hitherto sociocultural settings. That is, I only see a shallow and narrow piece of professional reality from a small and tight window.

Hence, I am already an outsider to most of the sociocultural professional environments in this field of human though and activity related to software creation and software evolution.

As such outsider, I try to enjoy, in full perplexity, my astonishments on all that I don’t know. Also, as an outsider to most sectors of the field, I also enjoy becoming aware of remarkable differences among some of those sectors. For example, the chasms between academy and non-academy settings. They don’t talk each other very much; furthermore, they are happy in their ignorance of each other and had no desire to learn from each other more.

Those chasms, on thought and action, resemble to me another set of astonishments as an outsider to other fields of human though and activity where there are also kind of similar chasms. For example, the chasm between some sectors of the humanities and some scientific settings. They also don’t talk each other very much; furthermore, they are happy in their ignorance of each other and had no desire to learn from each other more.

If conventional polarizations in human affairs are unbreakable, then there is no point to wait for they start talking each other more than they have done already. Besides, if they actually are two completely different realms of human though and activity, with entirely different goals and agendas, then the levels of divide and cooperation must not be changed.

At this point in history, we may ponder about that ‘third culture’ optimistically suggested, back in 1963, by C.P. Snow. A third culture paying attention to both sides of the chasm to try syntheses from the good of both.

In the field of software creation, we may also think about our own ‘third culture’ that would pay closer attention to what academy and non-academy settings have to offer.

The growth of a feature — Twelve years later

The original «The growth of a feature» post is about twelve years old. Yet, the history of iterative and incremental software design and delivery, accordingly to Craig Larman and Victor R. Basili, began about 70 years ago.

Systems thinking encounter

First time I heard about systems thinking was when discussing common traits of object-oriented analysis and design methods, in the 90’s, with colleagues at our first software development startup consulting firm. The discussion soon turned to general systems theory and several authors were mentioned; for example, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Peter Checkland, Kenneth E. Boulding, Mario Bunge, Norbert Wiener, and of course, Gerald M. Weinberg, among many others.

Since then I have been studying this subject matter, along with the historical development of systematic approaches to software design, not just because these topics are directly related to my daily professional work (software solutions from inception, delivery, and evolution), but also because developing knowledge about all this is pure cheer joy.

It turned out that I found the need to go even deeper in order to avoid the misconception of the buzzwords; that is, a misuse of language by which people assumes that the positive effects of concepts comes from using and repeating the words without the required effort of continuously developing a proper understanding of those concepts.

It was obvious for me then that there is always need to be self-aware of the degree of my own scientific and philosophical illiteracy in order to face a proper systems thinking approach to professional work not just in software but in other professional activities, where the software would be just one component of the solutions.

The systems thinking approach changed my life forever, not just my professional life but also my approach to the world in general. There are colossal differences between my worldview before knowing about systems thinking, my progressively adjusted worldview during my journey since, and my current worldview (I am still adjusting it).

Just as an example of my daily work, now I am able to spot more easily the place, and the suitable limits, for dogmatic opinion and behavior while designing software in professional teams.

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