It’s easier to keep a system working than to fix it after you break it

Einar Høst is the guest of this week. He is challenged with the heuristic “It’s easier to keep a system working than to fix it after you break it” from the Embedded Artistry repository (https://embeddedartistry.com/blog/2018/04/26/embedded-rules-of-thumb/). Einar describes how feedback cycles are critical to keeping a system working and how complex systems evolve from simpler systems, connecting both, how our engineering practices can support a reliable software development process.

Einar shares the pivotal moment in his career with us where he realised that collaboration was vital for success in the software industry.

Einar recommends:

• Data and Reality: A Timeless Perspective on Perceiving and Managing Information in Our Imprecise World by William Kent
• Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed by James C. Scott

Einar W. Høst (@einarwh) is a software developer at NRK, the Norwegian public broadcaster. He enjoys domain modelling, API design and computer programming. He thinks that programs should be written for people to read and also for machines to laugh at.