101 Things I Learned® in Engineering School

Even though they have not taken centuries to build, most programming systems reflect conceptual disunity far worse than that of cathedrals. Usually this arises not from a serial succession of master designers, but from the separation of design into many tasks done by many men. I will contend that conceptual integrity is the most important considera

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.”—John Gall

Now, the Great Safety Net is a complex solution to a complex set of problems. And as stated by John Gall in his landmark (and fun) book Systemantics, we can’t try to design a complex system from the start: “A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never

Even as I thought about larger and more complex objects – diggers, skyscrapers, factories, tunnels, electrical grids, cars, satellites, and so on – again and again, I came back to the same seven foundational innovations. We join things together: the nail. We need something that rotates or revolves: the wheel. We need power, and technology that can