NAME
Philosophy Working beliefs, not commandments.
PRINCIPLES
- understand first
- Abstraction is useful after the underlying problem is understood, not as a substitute for understanding it.
- complexity costs
- A complicated system needs to earn its complexity. “Enterprise” and “modern” are not reasons by themselves.
- users matter
- Tools should respect the person running them: their privacy, agency, data, attention, and ability to leave.
- specific beats grand
- A small tool that solves one real problem is often more valuable than a broad promise.
SOFTWARE
I prefer software I can inspect, adapt, keep, and share.
Free and open-source software is not automatically good software, but it preserves possibilities that closed systems remove. It lets curiosity continue past the interface and gives users a meaningful form of ownership.
REVISION
These views are expected to change. A belief that cannot survive better evidence is not a principle; it is an attachment.