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diff --git a/cliffs_notes/governable-spaces.md b/cliffs_notes/governable-spaces.md deleted file mode 100644 index 0669148c..00000000 --- a/cliffs_notes/governable-spaces.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,113 +0,0 @@ -https://luminosoa.org/site/books/m/10.1525/luminos.181/ - -# Introduction: democracy in the wild - -* Online communities are different to in-person communities. -* Online politics in the small reflect in the large. -* Online communities must explicitly be democratic, self-governance instead of top-down authority => governable spaces. -* Democratic erosion in the world is influenced by online communities. -* Users of online communities perceive arbitrary rule enforcement, unaccountability. -* Online movements have not resulted in lasting gains. -* The design of online spaces has atrophied everyday democracy skills. -* Garden club from 1960 with eight pages of bylaws => more successful than most only communities that will not live as long. -* Fervent US enthusiasm for forming associations observed by Alexis de Tocqueville in 19th century US. -* Tocqueville: democracy requires education, democracy in education requires political engagement. -* Tocqueville: associations can serve the social order. -* Will bad players behave better if they care about mini-democracies? -* Online spaces are different, more churn, faster, distributed, diverse. -* Participating in online spaces correlate to political participation. -* Author unclear about his disagreement with Tocqueville's conclusions, author is more optimistic. -* Democratic self-governance is harder in online spaces, but possible. -* Design to achieve self-governance, refuse corporate control. -* Technical solutions are not sufficient. -* People do not believe their governments are democratic. -* People are more willing to change due to technological progress. -* Governments use technology as an "unavoidable excuse", but it doesn't have to be this way. -* Introduction of citizen voice happens even authoritarian governments (!) -* Crypto ledger structures have new power structures, even though it's often antidemocratic, but presents an opportunity. -* For many, democracy is something that was created for them before they were born, or something they won't have in their lifetime. -* Online communities are closer to most than their democracy. -* Designing online communities offers chance to learn how to shape the larger government. -* No single design can work for all scenarios. -* Design should be based on accountability. -* Democracy on a small scale gives hope that it's possible on a bigger scale. -* From server control to community control. -* Implicit feudalism: power derives from founders and admins. -* "Governable stacks", "modular politics" to learn from. -* Widespread participation => burdensome, elitist, uninformed governance? Overwhelming to participants. -* Sometimes governable spaces should be highly participative, in others, use representation. -* Governance designs sensitive to economy of attention. - -# Implicit feudalism. The origins of counter-democratic design - -* A popular group that called for accountability had a flagship organization with a single board member. -* Facebook claimed having "the hacker way": open, meritocratic, but Mark Zuckerberg has majority control. -* Founders solidify. -* Early social platforms had technical conditions that grant administrators complete control. -* Use of "feudalism" is not historically precise. -* "Implicit" because it is not explicit. -* Sometimes platforms do not even allow transfer of power. -* Democracy can arise in feudal technologies due to pressure, this democracy can be similar to primitive democracy. -* But democracy in technology tends to go against the design, the most natural outcome is nondemocratic. -* Implicit feudalism is not a feature, it is merely seen as a non-intentional lack of features. -* First step: perceive lack of democratic features. -* "Exit" vs. "voice"; can only leave, vs. can change things. -* Exit can have costs => captivity. -* Refine voice into "Effective voice" vs. "affective voice" => venting vs. being able to make changes. -* BBS: runs in the sysop house, sysop has absolute power, but also most responsibility and maintenance burden. -* Users being able to leave makes some accountability. -* Limitations of real world (sysop responsibility) lead to implicit feudalism. -* Usenet was bigger scale than BBS, but ultimately "the big 8" ruled (and they named their successors). But Usenet hosted more popular communities than BBSs. -* Usenet hierarchy is decided by the big 8. -* Mailing lists follow similar patterns, administrators have all the power. -* In IRC, iconic channel/network names are a big factor in popularity over performance. -* IRC pioneered bots to execute authority. -* BBS, Usenet, mailing lists, IRC's structure follow that of UNIX, with root, etc. -* Linux and Wikipedia are very productive. -* Linux has BDFL (feudalism). -* Git seems to break feudalism with its distributed nature, but Linux uses a mailing list and the BDFL to control. -* GitHub promotes forks, and user voice in issues, but each project has owners and collaborators. -* Git/GitHub make "exit" easier, but not effective voice. -* Linux added a code of conduct, GitHub encourages project to have one. -* Debian Project Leader is elected, technical barriers of entry. -* Debian/Apache are outliers, non-profits. (Linux is a non-profit too.) -* Wikipedia also has self-governance, but also has BDFL. -* Wikipedia uses MediaWiki for governance (dogfooding). -* But most MediaWiki sites do not have self-governance. -* After Wikipedia's BDFL overreaches, BDFL has diminished power. -* Although software designs can have power vacuums, in the absence of technical software vacuums, "tyrany of structurelessness" often arises. -* Anyone could participate, but not everyone has the time, knowledge, and incentives. -* Big corporate platforms could not have the technical limitations of smaller earlier platforms. -* US Communications Decency Act protects platforms from liability from user behavior. -* Companies could control the platform, but let communities self-govern. -* Facebook/Reddit are different (real names vs. pseudonyms) and in theory provide more control to users. -* Management of communities requires a lot of effort. -* AOL tried to reduce cost of access to voluntary moderators, but moderators realized they made benefits for AOL without sufficient compensation. -* To offload moderation to volunteers in a cost-effective manner, they are paid with unchecked power. -* Author thinks Slashdot moderation worked well and satisfied users, but failed in producing benefit from provocation/engagement. -* Facebook/Reddit grant "affective voice" through karma, etc.; but not "effective voice". Exit is the most effective voice. -* Facebook/Reddit provide moderation tools and gamify moderation (reports on groups performance to incentivize admins to maximize usage). This amplifies implicit feudalism. -* Mark Zuckerberg has power over the Facebook group admins, and engages in democracy theater (2009 referendum on changes to terms of service, required 30% of participation, only 29% achieved, declared "advisory", did what they wanted). -* 2015 "Reddit revolt", blackouts by making subreddits private. Reddit tightened their rules. -* Conway law => structure of software reflects the structure of the organization. -* Facebook/Reddit => the structure of the software shapes the structure of the organization. -* Facebook tried to go to individuals over communities, mirroring WeChat/TikTok which have no social graphs, only driven by personal habits. -* Because TikTok etc. do not have communities, there is less politics, but everything is still controlled by the company. -* Implicit feudalism => control over communities, founder authority, named succession, opaque policies/decisions, supression of user voice, user exit only effective means, only platform owners resolve disputes. -* Implicit feudalism made some sense with limited resources, but not so much with unlimited resources from large corporations. -* Implicit feudalism is part of the business model. -* In contrast, authocratic governments have more democratic "performances" because it resembles legitimate authority. -* But no major online community offers possibilities of even democratic "performances". -* Implicit feudalism is not so effective; most Reddits are small, Miecraft servers median lifetime is eight weeks. -* Exit leads to variety, choice, innovation, but effective voice leads to comitment and stability. -* Example of BDFL becoming inactive led to subgroups becoming more resilient. -* Debian does not exist in isolation; sits between Linux and Ubuntu (both with BDFLs). -* Ubuntu benefits from Debian. -* Debian/Wikipedia combine elections with meritocratic barriers. -* Self-governance seems to emerge more in nonprofits or cooperatives, mirroring ownership structures and technical infrastructures. -* Usenet has some shared governance and autonomy in newsgroups. -* Combination of different power structures helps self-governance; electoral processes + meritocratic barriers for popular but capable leaders. -* Multiple governance mechanisms helps prevent one entity from becoming too powerful, but also allows differently-skilled users from having voice. -* Python had PEPs, when BDFL retired they had some prior art in choosing their new governance, with elections. -* Disassociation/cancellation => no appeals, how long does it last? Affective, not effective voice. These things come because there is no process to challenge those in power. -* communityrule.info => online design of community rules and publication/forking. Try to make it easier to create self-governance. diff --git a/cliffs_notes/mythical-man-month.md b/cliffs_notes/mythical-man-month.md deleted file mode 100644 index bf95c618..00000000 --- a/cliffs_notes/mythical-man-month.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,16 +0,0 @@ -# The mythical man-month - -## Chapter 1: the tar pit - -* "Program": complete in itself, ready to be run by the author on the system on which it was developed. - What we initially develop and delivers some value is normally a program. -* "Programming product": can be run by anybody, in any operating environment, for many sets of data. - A programming product is thoroughly tested. - A programming product is thoroughly documented. - A programming product costs three times the cost of the program. -* "Component in a programming system": works as a part of a larger product. - A component in a programming system follows a well-defined interface. - A component in a programming system is tested in integration. - A component in a programming system costs three times the cost of a program. -* "A programming systems product" is a programming product and a component in a programming system. - A programming systems product costs nine times the cost of a program. diff --git a/cliffs_notes/peopleware.md b/cliffs_notes/peopleware.md deleted file mode 100644 index 1264791f..00000000 --- a/cliffs_notes/peopleware.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,264 +0,0 @@ -# I. Managing the human resource - -People are different from software. - -## 1\. Somewhere today, a project is failing - -* 15% of all projects deliver nothing.\ - 25% for projects >25 work/years\ - Not for technical reasons, "politics" => sociology - -## 2\. Make a cheeseburger, sell a cheeseburger - -* Errors should be encouraged -* A project objective is to be ended. Therefore, a project is never steady. Therefore, a project is always changing and there is no steady state -* Need to think more about "why" this task needs to be done rather than how the task must be done - -## 3\. Vienna waits for you - -* Spanish Theory Management: increase productivity by extracting more work for the $ -* Mechanizing development, lowering quality, standardizing procedure reduces enjoyment of work - -## 4\. Quality-if time permits - -* Self-esteem makes people emotional -* Self-esteem is tied to the quality of our work -* Deadlines conflict with quality -* Manager: Market wants time-to-market over quality -* Builders: want to match their past best achieved quality, more than what the market wants -* But quality is a means to productivity - -## 5\. Parkinson's law revisited - -* "Work expands to fill the time allocated for it" -* Parkinson was a humorist -* Motivated people do not want to work forever in the same task -* The team can motivate people better than the manager -* Productivity by task estimator. No estimate > Systems analyst (unbiased expert) > Programmer > Programmer + supervisor > Supervisor -* Bureaucratic work does expand - -## 6\. Laetrile - -* People are desperate to increase productivity, fall to the seven sirens, seven false hopes of software management - * Missed something obvious: no - * Others are succeeding, you are getting outdated, not using the right programming language, need more automation: technical gains affect just a small part of the total effort - * Need to get to the bottom of the backlog: bottom of the backlog is worthless - * Workers need more pressure - -# II. The office environment - -It's hard to increase productivity, but easy to decrease it - -## 7\. The Furniture Police - -* Optimizing for cost, and uniformity is not productive - -## 8\. You never get anything done around here between 9 and 5 - -* Top performers work in quieter, more private, with less interruption, bigger spaces - -## 9\. Saving money on space - -* Cost of workplace is a small past of cost of worker - -## Intermezzo. Productivity measurement and unidentified flying objects - -* Gilb's Law: Anything you need to quantify can be measured in some way that is superior to not measuring it at all -* Individual productivity should only be measured by the invidivual - -## 10\. Brain time versus body time - -* Interruptions are expensive - -## 11\. The telephone - -* Ensure people attend their email with reasonable frequency (3/day) to allow prioritizing non-interrupting communication - -## 12\. Bring back the door - -* People work better in quiet environments - -## 13\. Taking umbrella steps - -* Developers should design the working environment -* Windows -* Provide outdoor space, public space - -# III. The right people - -* Get the right people, make them happy, let them work - -## 14\. The Hornblower factor - -* Difficult to improve people, choose well -* Appearances << capabilities -* Do not hire for uniformity in the company -* No dress codes - -## 15\. Hiring a juggler - -* Interviews are about performing, not talking -* Portfolios -* Aptitude tests are not for hiring, they are for self-assessment -* Audition on topic related to work selected by the candidate - -## 16\. Happy to be here - -* Turnover is expensive and leads to short term planning - * Needs quick promotions, leads to inexperienced people doing the building -* Company moves are the worst -* Good companies *retrain* - -## 17\. The self-healing system - -* Humans can improvise, automated process cannot -* Big M Methodologies automate - * No improvisation, so must grow to cover all cases - * Lots of documents -* Big M Methodologies take responsibilities away from people into the Methodology -* Big M Methodologies lead to malicious compliance- follow the Methodology even if it has bad outcomes -* Convergence of methods is good, easier to onboard, etc. -* Achieve convergence of methods by training, tooling and peer review, without forcing a Methodology -* Hawthorne Effect: people perform better when trying new approaches -* Do new things on every project to benefit from the Hawthorne Effect -* But have a 10-page max. standard - -# IV. Growing productive teams - -* Teams working as one on a challenge are the objective. Help the team form - -## 18\. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts - -* Jell: a jelled team is more than the sum of its members. Jelled teams enjoy the work -* Jelled teams have a common objective, low turnover, strong sense of identity, feel elite, join ownership of product, enjoyment - -## 19\. The black team - -* The black team tested other teams code. -* The black team outlived the original members -* Identity: dressed in black, some evil mustaches, mystique - -## 20\. Teamicide - -* You can't make a team jell, but you can prevent it from jellying - * Defensive management: preventing people from making mistakes. If the team cannot do the job, they cannot do the job. - * Bureaucracy - * Physical separation - * Fragmentation of people's time: the team must be together most of the time - * Quality reduction of the product: quality jells a team - * Phony deadlines - * Clique control (preventing the team for working together in further projects) - -## 21\. A spaghetti dinner - -* Small successes lead to bigger successes -* Perform small projects, demos, etc. - -## 22\. Open kimono - -* Trust the team -* Get them out of the office -* Let skunkworks projects happen -* Let people choose their peers and project -* Natural authority by being competent - -## 23\. Chemistry for team formation - -* Some organizations have environments that favor team formation -* Managers do not seem busy nor manage a lot, they maintain the chemistry -* Chemistry building - * Cult of quality - * I told her I loved her when I married her. Provide closure to each task. Small tasks for frequent closure - * The Elite Team. Allow and grant uniqueness. - * On not breaking up the yankees. - * A network model of team behavior. Managers are not part of the team. Occasional leaders inside the team - * Selections from a Chinese menu. Do not have a uniform team - -# V. It's supposed to be fun to work here - -## 24\. Chaos and order - -* Constructive reintroduction of small amounts of disorder - * Pilot projects. All projects as pilots, but limit experimentation - * War games - * Brainstorming - * Provocative training experiences - * Training, trips, conferences, celebrations, and retreats. - -## 25\. Free electrons - -* Some people should be left to work at what they want - -## 26\. Holgar Dansk - -* A "sleeping giant" can oppose any bad change - -# VI. Son of Peopleware - -## 27\. Teamicide revisited - -* Those damn posters. Motivational posters tell obvious things people already know. It is demeaning -* Overtime: An unanticipated side effect. If someone is exent of overtime, it is even more damaging - -## 28\. Competition - -* Internal competition inhibits jell - * Prevents internal coaching - * Can come from: - * Annual salary or merit reviews - * Management by objectives - * Praise of certain workers for extraordinary accomplishment - * Awards, prizes, bonuses tied to performance - * Performance measurement in almost any form -* Musical ensembles are better metaphors of good development teams than sport teams. Individual sport teams members can have differing valoration from the rest of the team - -## 29\. Process improvement programs - -* Standardized interfaces are good, standardized processes are not -* Goal is a good product, not building it efficiently -* Good products are risky projects, process improvement avoids risky projects -* Better teams do more complex projects, more risk - -## 30\. Making change possible - -* People fear change -* Degrees of fear to change - * Blindly loyal (ask no questions) - * Believers but questioners - * Skeptics (show me) - * Passive observers (what's in it for me?) - * Opposed (fear of change) - * Opposed (fear of loss of power) - * Militantly opposed (will undermine and destroy) - - Blindly loyal can abandon a change for a newer one. Only Believers but questioners can be allies to a change. Work with them to make change successful -* Celebrate the old system -* Phases of change - * Introduce foreign element/catalyst - * Chaos - * Transforming idea (finding the "correct training"/correct way to adopt change) - * Practice & Integration - * New status quo -* People need to feel safe for change, there should be room for some failure - -## 31\. Human capital - -* Money spent of people is only lost if they leave -* Replacing someone is expensive - -## 32\. Organizational learning - -* Organizations can only learn if people stay for a long time -* Organizations learn when middle management works together without competition and without reporting to upper management - -## 33\. The ultimate management sin is... - -* Wasting people's time - * Being late for meetings, blocking meetings, inviting people who don't need to be there - * Status reporting meetings - * Early overstaffing (and leads to fragmenting time of people) - -## 34\. The making of community - -* Aristotelian politics is building communities, extending ethics to a group -* Creatin
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