Permaculture principles There are two basic steps to good permaculture design. The first deals with laws and principles, while the second is more closely associated with practical techniques. The principles are inherent in any permaculture design, in any climate, and at any scale. They are, briefly: Relative location: every element is placed in relationship to another so that they assist each other Each element performs many functions. Each important function is supported by many elements. Efficient energy planning for house and settlement. Emphasis on the use of biological resources over fossil fuel resources. Energy recycling on site. Using and accelerating natural plant succession to establish favourable sites and soils. Polyculture and diversity of beneficial species for a productive, interactive system. Use of edge and natural patterns for best effect. Bill Mollison, Introduction to Permaculture principles
Software developers have stopped caring about reliability An Article by Drew DeVault drewdevault.com Of all the principles of software engineering which has fallen by the wayside in the modern “move fast and break things” mentality of assholes modern software developers, reliability is perhaps the most neglected, along with its cousin, robustness. Almost all software that users encounter in $CURRENTYEAR is straight-up broken, and often badly. softwareprinciples
Tossing an idea around Can we do anything to increase creativity? There are training courses, and books, as well as “brainstorming sessions” which are supposed to do this. Taking the brainstorming sessions first, while they were very fashionable at one time, they have generally been found to be not much good when formally done, when a brainstorming session is carefully scheduled. But we all have had the experience of “tossing an idea around” with a friend, or a few friends (but not a large group, generally), from which insight, creativity, or whatever you care to call it, arises and we make progress. Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn SceniusThe Small Group