eval/apply 1 is my credo. To eval is to think culture over strategy, humans over technology, systems over hacks, workflows over tools. To apply is to Design by subtraction 2, engineer for simplicity, produce output iteratively, ship continuously.

Learn generously is my favourite self-directive 3. One stands on the shoulders of giants. One has received much generosity. One benefits greatly from contributions to the public commons.

The dashing duo of eval/apply and learn generously pervades all that I think, teach, speak, organise, share, code, and what I am doing now.

Thoughtful email chats are welcome! Pet topics include software, systems, complexity, architecture, functional programming, and Clojure.

Ah, and I email occasional newsletters too.
(thanks, Buttondown!)

  1. Computing pioneer Alan Kay dubbed eval/apply the Maxwell’s Equations of Software. It is such a stunningly compact and fundamental descriptor of all of computing. To me, the concept also embodies similarly powerful non-dualities; think/do, diffuse/focus, abstract/concretise. Over time, it became my way.↩︎

  2. "It is not daily increase but daily decrease, hack away the unessential. The closer to the source, the less wastage there is." — Bruce Lee↩︎

  3. Learn generously is a "self-directive" coined by the gentlepeople at my favourite programmers' community, the Recurse Center.

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