Internet is abuzz about ChatGPT and what it means for software development. How to get most benefit out of it? A forecast. Now that everyone has played with the advanced NLP (natural language processing) artificial intelligence, there are concerns that it will make certain kinds of work obsolete. …

A friend of mine asked whether I see a connection between Plato’s solids and ideal computer code, and here goes my answer. Speaking metaphorically, if the requirement is to maximize volume of a jar while saving material, then a sphere is probably the best form for this. However, humans need…

There are two approaches to creating consistent programming code. For the same quality, one requires more skill and less time, while the other is the other way around. Here I understand the word “coherent” in the sense of “forming a unified whole” as well as “logical and consistent” (from https://www.oxfordify.com/meaning/coherent)…

Software development will become harder with time. Don’t stop developing yourself. Making software is essentially formalizing real world knowledge using formal systems. Real world includes everything we are surrounded with. Software developers write code to solve real world problems. …

Research shows the limit to code re-use. How much can be reused depends on the problem domain. Software development values reusable code in many different forms and sizes. While the hype of achieving high reusability is over, the goal of producing reusable software has not disappeared. Most common ways to…

Low viscosity, easily-maintainable systems are a dream of software developers. Here a generic design approach to such systems is described. Everyone experienced enough will recognize the pattern and start applying it. The foundational ideas here are not my own. I’ve familiarized myself with them while trying to understand the essence…

There are a lot of discussions whether software developers need math to do their work. And the popular view is they do not. Here I challenge that assumption. — First of all, I would like to clarify which kind of mathematics helps every software developer to be really good and versatile. I am not talking about math-heavy software development here, so in my personal observation, encountering mathematical problems may be a rare event. 95% of time developers (seemingly) are…

Here is my approach to solving problems of many kinds, be it programming, mathematics, design or psychology of communication. This article only scratches the surface of a much deeper set of cognitive strategies, but I hope most readers will find something new and useful to their life situations. What does “generic” mean? Wiktionary’s definition…