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Understanding Software

You're reading from   Understanding Software Max Kanat-Alexander on simplicity, coding, and how to suck less as a programmer

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Product type Paperback
Published in Sep 2017
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781788628815
Length 278 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Max Kanat-Alexander Max Kanat-Alexander
Author Profile Icon Max Kanat-Alexander
Max Kanat-Alexander
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Table of Contents (15) Chapters Close

1. Table of Contents FREE CHAPTER
2. Understanding Software
3. Credits
4. About the Author
5. www.PacktPub.com
6. Customer Feedback
7. Foreword
8. One. Principles for Programmers 9. Two. Software Complexity and its Causes 10. Three. Simplicity and Software Design 11. Four. Debugging 12. Five. Engineering in Teams 13. Six. Understanding Software 14. Seven. Suck Less 15. Index

Chapter 28. The Purpose of Technology

In general:

When technology attempts to solve problems of matter, energy, space, or time, it is successful. When it attempts to solve human problems of the mind, communication, ability, etc. it fails or backfires dangerously.

For example, the Internet handled a great problem of space – it allowed us to communicate with anybody in the world, instantly. However, it did not make us better communicators. In fact, it took many poor communicators and gave them a massive platform on which they could spread hatred and fear.

This isn't me saying that the Internet is all bad – I'm actually quite fond of it, personally. I'm just giving an example to demonstrate what types of problems technology does and does not solve successfully.

The reason this principle, or rule, is useful is that it tells us in advance what kind of software purposes or startup ideas are more likely to be successful.

Companies that focus on solving human problems...

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