[HN Gopher] Principles are products of practice, not the reverse
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Principles are products of practice, not the reverse
Author : majdalsado
Score : 28 points
Date : 2023-11-13 20:20 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (alsado.ca)
(TXT) w3m dump (alsado.ca)
| cloths wrote:
| I can think of one reason for strict adherence to principles is
| for newbies, for new starters not familiar with the world they're
| dealing with, too many moving pieces can be overwhelming, so
| using principles to fixate a few things can be helpful.
| earthboundkid wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuhari
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I started off, from Day One, heavily structuring and documenting
| my code.
|
| These days, I don't even think about it, and my productivity is
| pretty much as good as you can get.
|
| Plus, I am the one that usually has to go back into my code, and
| maintain it, so I'm glad of that habit.
|
| _" We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an
| act, but a habit."_
|
| - Mis-attributed to Aristotle.
| dblohm7 wrote:
| You gotta be careful with this one in the context that it is
| being applied here (HTML). This risks becoming an ableist mantra
| because the practice might be disregarding accessibility
| concerns.
| jph wrote:
| The core thesis is "I believe principles should not stifle
| progress".
|
| It turns out that people can have very different kind of
| principles in mind.
|
| Some principles are primarily ethical, such as "Make our product
| work for people with disabilities, because it's the right thing
| to do".
|
| Some principles are primarily legal, such as "Encrypt data at
| rest and in motion, because we don't want compliance problems".
|
| Some principles are primarily practical, such as "Bias for
| action: if you're 80% sure, and you decision is easy to reverse,
| then proceed."
| happytiger wrote:
| In software engineering, "principles" constitute a delicate and
| evolving synthesis of theoretical constructs and empirical
| lessons.
|
| They transcend the mere aftermath of triumphs, as posited by the
| author, to encapsulate the intricate tapestry woven by _both_
| successes and failures.
|
| The author posits that principles are the byproduct of success,
| but that's simply not the whole truth.
|
| The author's dichotomy between principles and experimentation
| oversimplifies the complex interplay between these elements.
|
| Principles, far from being dichotomous with experimentation,
| represent not only "prescriptive guidelines for successful
| implementation" but also incorporate the sagacious counsel and
| bitter emotional lessons distilled from the long and enormous
| crucible of software project failures.
|
| In my experience managing and coding software engineering
| projects, this kind of fidelity to principles becomes a
| multidimensional pursuit, where the so-called "failure
| principles" bear just as much gravitas as their counterparts
| learned from success.
|
| > This is also why it's important for the makers of policies and
| standards to be connected with the real-time experimentation in a
| market, and not in silo, to constantly adapt, iterate, and refine
| standards and principles according to real-world outcomes.
|
| This lesson is profoundly true, and encompassed in lean
| experimentation and their ilk, and while it's important not to
| rely on principles to guide product as effectively it becomes
| _tradition_ guiding product, it is not translatable as the author
| presents it as such a causative thing as "principles for
| implementation guidance" and not losing "experimentation for
| innovation and market sensitivity" are generally separate
| phenomenon and ideas and much, much more nuanced that this simple
| prescription, and in that effort it's incredibly important to pay
| attention to "principles" in order to mitigate the not so
| insignificant risk of catastrophic failure.
|
| Let me illustrate with some examples:
|
| - Those who chase two rabbits catch neither (can hardly be seen
| as a product of successful hunting).
|
| - Keep it simple stupid is sage advice.
|
| - Do not repeat yourself.
|
| - When in doubt, communicate.
|
| - Keep it encrypted.
|
| There are the "failure principles" and they are so, SO important
| in software and I think the author is ignoring them in this
| thesis, though they do have some relevant points.
|
| While the author's thesis introduces pertinent considerations we
| should all be thinking about, a discerning examination of both
| failure and success is imperative, and avoiding conflating lean
| and innovation and customer 'considerate' development with being
| merely the products of the application of lessons of positive
| principles (or not) that therefore must "constantly adapt,
| iterate, and refine standards and principles" is overly
| simplistic.
|
| I need to drink less coffee.
| marcosdumay wrote:
| Well, if the phrase on the title is true for you, you are working
| with some really unprincipled principles.
|
| They shouldn't. Principles are something that guides practice.
| Like the principles of aerodynamics guided the evolution of the
| airplane even if they weren't fully known at the time. (And this
| example on the article is just wrong.)
|
| If you use the same word for something that is derived from
| practice (like best practices, on the HTML example), you will
| lack one for the really fundamental stuff.
| realusername wrote:
| I'm not sure why you picked physics as an example which
| probably is the single field where the most principles were
| developed from mimicking practice and observation, aerodynamics
| included.
| ajb wrote:
| I think it's more of a loop. Principles guide practice, but
| practice may cause you to discover that your principles were
| mistaken of limited. Eg, the discovery of quantum effects.
|
| A more worked-through explanation of this can be found by
| reading up on "reflective equilibrium"
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_equilibrium
| galaxyLogic wrote:
| I would say, and do say, that Principles are Rules of Thumb
| withinboredom wrote:
| If you've ever had to live through some shit, principles are
| born as a way to stay alive when shit hits the fan. They aren't
| simple rules of thumb for the people who live them.
| adfgioninio wrote:
| It is a _moral_ principle that websites should mostly use HTML.
| This is not because it 's the easiest way to build websites and
| certainly not because it's the best way to make lots of money.
| It's because it ensures everyone can use the same web and gives
| the user agent as much power as possible to act on the user's
| behalf.
| gemstones wrote:
| Not according to my morals!
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