Category Archives: Philosophy

Naur’s “Programming as Theory Building”

A critique from Alistair Cockburn on how the agile movement is under attack from Taylorism led me to an essay by Dave West on the philosophical incompatibilities between lean and agile techniques, and this in turn led me to finally … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Conceptual Models, Philosophy, Software development | 17 Comments

Guildenstern and epistemology

A propos of nothing in particular, this quote from Stoppard’s brilliant Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. After losing nearly a hundred coin tosses in a row to Rosencrantz, who bets Heads every time, Guildenstern suspects there’s something funky going on … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Philosophy | 2 Comments

Postmodernism, truth, and bullshit

I must say I had been flirting with postmodern philosophy in recent years –with the idea that objective truth is unattainable, that generalizations are impossible, and that all I have is my own perception of reality, which need not, and … Continue reading

Posted in Academia, Philosophy | 9 Comments