The introduction of suitable abstractions is our only mental aid to organise and master complexity
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Abstraction in Math
Modern systems theory, bound up with computers and equations, hides the fact that it traffics in truths known at some level by everyone. It is often possible, therefore, to make a direct translation from systems jargon to traditional wisdom.
Donella H. Meadows • Thinking in Systems
What's all this about, why does it matter to you? It's mostly just musing on an observation that seems to have held up since the first time it occurred to me in my youth. If you keep this truth in mind it can shape the way you describe things, learn things, and share that knowledge.
One of your fundamental challenges in life is to establish the
... See moreBlardo's Braindump • Your Brain as a Zoom Lens
AbstractionValue = (Uses × Friction) - AbstractionCost
Where:
- Uses = number of call sites
- Friction = lines of code × complexity × error-proneness
- AbstractionCost = new concepts + indirection + flexibility loss