Paul Cantrell
@ct_bergstrom @jenniferplusplus
It’s a good one. The realization that programming involves forming and refining mental models is crucial and frequently unrecognized; the translation to (from?) science is obvious.
The related treatise on this topic I’m always recommending is Imre Lakatos’s Proofs and Refutations: we make imaginary things, they talk back and surprise us, we reimagine them.
Paul Cantrell
@marick
That sounds quite interesting. Thanks for the recommendation!
Brian Marick
@inthehands @ct_bergstrom @jenniferplusplus Pickering’s /The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science/¹ is along similar lines, using the example of the bubble chamber (invented because Glaser wanted to do lab-top science, but ended up inventing a symbol of Big Science) and Hamilton’s quaternions (he was trying to solve a completely different problem).
¹ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/556449.The_Mangle_of_Practice
Brian Marick
@inthehands @ct_bergstrom @jenniferplusplus /Proofs and Refutations/ is a wonderful book.
Paul Cantrell
@marick @ct_bergstrom @jenniferplusplus
Nice writeup, lovely example! Brings this passage to mind:
“Mathematicians enjoy thinking about the simplest possible things, and the simplest possible things are imaginary.”
“On the other hand, once you have made your choices…then your new creations do what they do, whether you like it or not. This is the amazing thing about making imaginary patterns: they talk back!”
https://worrydream.com/refs/Lockhart_2002_-_A_Mathematician's_Lament.pdf
Brian Marick
@inthehands @ct_bergstrom @jenniferplusplus FYI: here’s my summary of what Pickering says about quaternions: http://www.exampler.com/old-blog/2004/02/13/index.html
Paul Cantrell
@marick @ct_bergstrom @jenniferplusplus
“The Mangle of Practice” and its subsequent line of thought (including your essay) are all new to me. Thanks for the introduction!
Brian Marick
@inthehands @ct_bergstrom @jenniferplusplus Since you said that nice thing, may I present my sole academic sociology publication: “Agile Software Development: A Manglish Way of Working”¹, in a followup book collection: /The Mangle IN Practice/² (2009).
¹https://user.fm/files/v2-21dcabb6abbfd8ebc5fabfe1e6f8fa65/marick-truly-final-dammit.pdf
²https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-mangle-in-practice
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