Red Squirrel Reflections Dave Hoover explores the psychology of software development

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Phil Armour at ChAD
Friday, June 27, 2003

Last night I had the priviledge to listen to Phil Armour speak for over two hours. His Of Zeppelins and Jet Planes presentation was excellent. What is it about us Americans that so enjoys English accents?

Phil's thinking is based on the premise that software is the fifth knowledge storage media since the beginning of the world (the first four were DNA, brains, devices, and books). Rather than approaching software as a product, we must see it as a media that stores knowledge. The power of software lies in its similarity with devices: it is executable. Yet it has a key advantage over devices: it is easily adaptable. I feel the idea of software as executable knowledge is right on target and fits into the thinking behind agile software development.

The nugget of insight I most enjoyed came when Phil turned his premise (that software development is a knowledge acquisition activity) upside down: that software development is an ignorance reduction activity. This excited me because it fits perfectly into my experiences as a family therapist. I was trained to maintain an attitude of "not knowing" when working with families. I have found this attitude very helpful in software development because it implies that there is always something to learn. And when I'm learning, I feel alive.

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