The Pinocchio Problem
I only permit myself about 4 hours a month for blogging. That's been my rough budget for the past year or so. Normally I have all sorts of topics I'd like to write about, things I'm kicking around, and it's not too hard to pick one. But for the past month, I've only had one thing on my mind, and I've been going nuts trying to find a way to voice it — you know, to present it in a nice, concise way so you can gulp it down. And so far I'm failing. I think that means I don't understand it very well. Maybe trying to write it down will help. It's about designing software. See, it seems like there's a good way to design software. A best way, even. And nobody does it. Well, a few people do, but even in those rare instances, I think it's accidental half the time. I've been thinking about this problem on and off for quite a while, and wouldn't you know it, suddenly 18 years have gone by and I still can't quite articulate this...