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188 results for “sebhans”
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New blog post: Stop doing stupid things
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New blog post: Stop doing stupid things
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Am I the only one who finds phrases like “complexity must earn its keep” strange? As if complexity were a workhorse that needed to justify its feeding costs by working extra hard. Complexity doesn't “earn” anything. It also doesn't just turn up. People build complex stuff because they decide to do so, and complexity is the result. It's the builders who need to justify their design, not some abstract entity.
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Am I the only one who finds phrases like “complexity must earn its keep” strange? As if complexity were a workhorse that needed to justify its feeding costs by working extra hard. Complexity doesn't “earn” anything. It also doesn't just turn up. People build complex stuff because they decide to do so, and complexity is the result. It's the builders who need to justify their design, not some abstract entity.
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Am I the only one who finds phrases like “complexity must earn its keep” strange? As if complexity were a workhorse that needed to justify its feeding costs by working extra hard. Complexity doesn't “earn” anything. It also doesn't just turn up. People build complex stuff because they decide to do so, and complexity is the result. It's the builders who need to justify their design, not some abstract entity.
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Am I the only one who finds phrases like “complexity must earn its keep” strange? As if complexity were a workhorse that needed to justify its feeding costs by working extra hard. Complexity doesn't “earn” anything. It also doesn't just turn up. People build complex stuff because they decide to do so, and complexity is the result. It's the builders who need to justify their design, not some abstract entity.
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@Daojoan/116564798026042708
“The practical advice is to know which game you're in.”
I think the same is true for people in software development. I'm in the quality game myself, for better or worse (ha!), and I'm not trying to play the other one that's gotten so popular recently.
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Hot take: If 80% of a system consists of “special cases”, they are not special cases, they _are_ the system, and it could be much improved if the people working on it acknowledged that fact and acted accordingly.
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I collected my results and reflections on #AdventOfSystemSeeing 2025 on a page on my blog: https://sebastian-hans.de/blog/aiss-2025/
Most of this has already been posted here, but I have added a PDF version of my zine “Advent(ure) in System Seeing 2025”, so you can print it, too, if you like.
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I collected my results and reflections on #AdventOfSystemSeeing 2025 on a page on my blog: https://sebastian-hans.de/blog/aiss-2025/
Most of this has already been posted here, but I have added a PDF version of my zine “Advent(ure) in System Seeing 2025”, so you can print it, too, if you like.
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I collected my results and reflections on #AdventOfSystemSeeing 2025 on a page on my blog: https://sebastian-hans.de/blog/aiss-2025/
Most of this has already been posted here, but I have added a PDF version of my zine “Advent(ure) in System Seeing 2025”, so you can print it, too, if you like.
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I collected my results and reflections on #AdventOfSystemSeeing 2025 on a page on my blog: https://sebastian-hans.de/blog/aiss-2025/
Most of this has already been posted here, but I have added a PDF version of my zine “Advent(ure) in System Seeing 2025”, so you can print it, too, if you like.
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I collected my results and reflections on #AdventOfSystemSeeing 2025 on a page on my blog: https://sebastian-hans.de/blog/aiss-2025/
Most of this has already been posted here, but I have added a PDF version of my zine “Advent(ure) in System Seeing 2025”, so you can print it, too, if you like.
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#AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 24. Doing this on Christmas Eve with 2 kids? No chance! Today, they are busy with their presents, and I have some free time. I admit, I groaned every time I encountered a “make a zine page” exercise because drawing does not come naturally to me, but now I already had 5 pages I wanted to finish it. So I added a title page and created two additional pages to illustrate all the tools we used during the course of our Advent(ure). I am quite pleased with the result. I intend to keep it on my desk as a tangible reminder to practice system seeing more often, and as a quick reference.
Thank you, @RuthMalan, for your prompts and the effort you put into them! Doing this on a website instead of only the feed was a good idea. It made it easier for me to tag along slightly behind, and also to review the tools and methods for my tool collection pages.
A photo of the second tool collection (and final) page follows (can only attach 4 pictures here).
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#AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 24. Doing this on Christmas Eve with 2 kids? No chance! Today, they are busy with their presents, and I have some free time. I admit, I groaned every time I encountered a “make a zine page” exercise because drawing does not come naturally to me, but now I already had 5 pages I wanted to finish it. So I added a title page and created two additional pages to illustrate all the tools we used during the course of our Advent(ure). I am quite pleased with the result. I intend to keep it on my desk as a tangible reminder to practice system seeing more often, and as a quick reference.
Thank you, @RuthMalan, for your prompts and the effort you put into them! Doing this on a website instead of only the feed was a good idea. It made it easier for me to tag along slightly behind, and also to review the tools and methods for my tool collection pages.
A photo of the second tool collection (and final) page follows (can only attach 4 pictures here).
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#AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 24. Doing this on Christmas Eve with 2 kids? No chance! Today, they are busy with their presents, and I have some free time. I admit, I groaned every time I encountered a “make a zine page” exercise because drawing does not come naturally to me, but now I already had 5 pages I wanted to finish it. So I added a title page and created two additional pages to illustrate all the tools we used during the course of our Advent(ure). I am quite pleased with the result. I intend to keep it on my desk as a tangible reminder to practice system seeing more often, and as a quick reference.
Thank you, @RuthMalan, for your prompts and the effort you put into them! Doing this on a website instead of only the feed was a good idea. It made it easier for me to tag along slightly behind, and also to review the tools and methods for my tool collection pages.
A photo of the second tool collection (and final) page follows (can only attach 4 pictures here).
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#AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 24. Doing this on Christmas Eve with 2 kids? No chance! Today, they are busy with their presents, and I have some free time. I admit, I groaned every time I encountered a “make a zine page” exercise because drawing does not come naturally to me, but now I already had 5 pages I wanted to finish it. So I added a title page and created two additional pages to illustrate all the tools we used during the course of our Advent(ure). I am quite pleased with the result. I intend to keep it on my desk as a tangible reminder to practice system seeing more often, and as a quick reference.
Thank you, @RuthMalan, for your prompts and the effort you put into them! Doing this on a website instead of only the feed was a good idea. It made it easier for me to tag along slightly behind, and also to review the tools and methods for my tool collection pages.
A photo of the second tool collection (and final) page follows (can only attach 4 pictures here).
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#AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 24. Doing this on Christmas Eve with 2 kids? No chance! Today, they are busy with their presents, and I have some free time. I admit, I groaned every time I encountered a “make a zine page” exercise because drawing does not come naturally to me, but now I already had 5 pages I wanted to finish it. So I added a title page and created two additional pages to illustrate all the tools we used during the course of our Advent(ure). I am quite pleased with the result. I intend to keep it on my desk as a tangible reminder to practice system seeing more often, and as a quick reference.
Thank you, @RuthMalan, for your prompts and the effort you put into them! Doing this on a website instead of only the feed was a good idea. It made it easier for me to tag along slightly behind, and also to review the tools and methods for my tool collection pages.
A photo of the second tool collection (and final) page follows (can only attach 4 pictures here).
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Reflecting on #AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 23: There were definitely “differences between [my] external dialogue and internal thoughts and feelings.” I think this is necessary to a certain degree. In general, you don't want to bleat out the first thing that comes to mind in a professional setting. In the situation I had in mind, I had certain suspicions about the motives of the other party, but this was not the moment to address them. There will be a meeting at the beginning of the new year where the cards will be put on the table. We will prepare for this and hopefully have a fruitful discussion then.
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Reflecting on #AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 23: There were definitely “differences between [my] external dialogue and internal thoughts and feelings.” I think this is necessary to a certain degree. In general, you don't want to bleat out the first thing that comes to mind in a professional setting. In the situation I had in mind, I had certain suspicions about the motives of the other party, but this was not the moment to address them. There will be a meeting at the beginning of the new year where the cards will be put on the table. We will prepare for this and hopefully have a fruitful discussion then.
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Understanding a software system by reading ADRs is a bit like event-sourcing its architecture in your head. You get the whole history (enabling deeper understanding), but if you just want to get information about the present state, it's not very efficient. Hence, keeping a snapshot of the current state (a read model if you will) in some form is still worthwhile.
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@RuthMalan It's the "and then" part that's the problem. I write the ADR before making the decision, using it to drive discussion and evaluate options (and record the options, too). That's where most of the value comes from for me.
ADRs are rarely needed afterwards, but when they are (mostly during onboarding of new team members, but maybe also if something doesn't turn out the way we imagined), they are an immensely useful tool for understanding the thinking that went into the decision.
In other words (because I've been thinking about Peter Naur's Theory Building View lately), ADRs can help people (re)build the theory of the system in their minds if necessary, keeping it alive. People who already possess the theory don't need to read them, and this is a good thing.
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Reflecting on #AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 22: This exercise felt very similar to “Exploring Constraints and Forces” on day 19. When I squint a bit, the goal here looks like the problem there, the actors here form a subset of the constraints there, the impacts here are roughly equivalent to the forces there, and the responses here look like the approaches there. Assumptions are not explicitly called out here, although some of the impacts I listed are indeed assumptions rather than proven facts.
In order to not just copy everything over, I chose a different goal to explore today.
What's new here is the last paragraph where we ask about side-effects and explore further beyond the right side of the diagram. We could do that with the other one, too, however.
So, @RuthMalan, am I right about this being kind of a subset of day 19? If not, what did I miss?
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Reflecting on #AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 22: This exercise felt very similar to “Exploring Constraints and Forces” on day 19. When I squint a bit, the goal here looks like the problem there, the actors here form a subset of the constraints there, the impacts here are roughly equivalent to the forces there, and the responses here look like the approaches there. Assumptions are not explicitly called out here, although some of the impacts I listed are indeed assumptions rather than proven facts.
In order to not just copy everything over, I chose a different goal to explore today.
What's new here is the last paragraph where we ask about side-effects and explore further beyond the right side of the diagram. We could do that with the other one, too, however.
So, @RuthMalan, am I right about this being kind of a subset of day 19? If not, what did I miss?
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Reflecting on #AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 22: This exercise felt very similar to “Exploring Constraints and Forces” on day 19. When I squint a bit, the goal here looks like the problem there, the actors here form a subset of the constraints there, the impacts here are roughly equivalent to the forces there, and the responses here look like the approaches there. Assumptions are not explicitly called out here, although some of the impacts I listed are indeed assumptions rather than proven facts.
In order to not just copy everything over, I chose a different goal to explore today.
What's new here is the last paragraph where we ask about side-effects and explore further beyond the right side of the diagram. We could do that with the other one, too, however.
So, @RuthMalan, am I right about this being kind of a subset of day 19? If not, what did I miss?
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Reflecting on #AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 22: This exercise felt very similar to “Exploring Constraints and Forces” on day 19. When I squint a bit, the goal here looks like the problem there, the actors here form a subset of the constraints there, the impacts here are roughly equivalent to the forces there, and the responses here look like the approaches there. Assumptions are not explicitly called out here, although some of the impacts I listed are indeed assumptions rather than proven facts.
In order to not just copy everything over, I chose a different goal to explore today.
What's new here is the last paragraph where we ask about side-effects and explore further beyond the right side of the diagram. We could do that with the other one, too, however.
So, @RuthMalan, am I right about this being kind of a subset of day 19? If not, what did I miss?
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Reflecting on #AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 22: This exercise felt very similar to “Exploring Constraints and Forces” on day 19. When I squint a bit, the goal here looks like the problem there, the actors here form a subset of the constraints there, the impacts here are roughly equivalent to the forces there, and the responses here look like the approaches there. Assumptions are not explicitly called out here, although some of the impacts I listed are indeed assumptions rather than proven facts.
In order to not just copy everything over, I chose a different goal to explore today.
What's new here is the last paragraph where we ask about side-effects and explore further beyond the right side of the diagram. We could do that with the other one, too, however.
So, @RuthMalan, am I right about this being kind of a subset of day 19? If not, what did I miss?
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#AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 21. Another zine page, oh my! Well, here we go.
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#AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 21. Another zine page, oh my! Well, here we go.
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#AdventOfSystemSeeing, day 21. Another zine page, oh my! Well, here we go.