Algorithms and Refutations
By Paul Cantrell
Programmers spend a lot of time inventing, using, and fighting with abstractions. We give a lot of thought to the technical mechanics of how we make them (OOP! metaprogramming! your tool here!), but don't often pause to consider what abstractions are, how they evolve, and why they do or don't work.
The late philosopher Imre Lakatos examined these questions in the realm of mathematics, and came to some surprising and profound conclusions, puncturing many widely held presumptions about what math is. His conclusions translate directly into software: they have implications for topics as diverse as API design, requirements gathering, unit testing, the design of whole languages, and the names of individual variables. The same bad presumptions Lakatos uncovered in mathematics help explain the failures of many development methodologies old and new, and provide an answer to the age-old question of why software never seems to be done.
Come join in this interactive and opinionated talk on why you should change your fundamental assumptions about how software happens.
Participants
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Toby Cryns
Scott Vlaminck
Mark Gritter
Joel Calhoun
Subramanya Sastry
Martin Grider
GlennMoen
Joelle Tegwen
Chris Mitra
Selah Ben-Haim
Samir Nassar
Florin Iucha
John Mindiola III
David Simmer
David Quimby
Eric Nordberg
Michael Ekstrand
Daniel J. Post
Mark P. Beckman
Scott Ferris
Rick Cochrane
Adam May
Paul Kim
Peter McWilliams
Scott Atkins
Andy Beger
Coyne
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