HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015921.jpg
1.42 MB
Extraction Summary
2
People
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Organizations
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Locations
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Events
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Relationships
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Quotes
Document Information
Type:
Book excerpt or academic paper/article
File Size:
1.42 MB
Summary
This document appears to be a page from a book or paper discussing software engineering theory, specifically Fred Brooks' concepts of 'Essential' versus 'Accidental' complexity. It references Brooks' work 'The Mythical Man Month' and directs readers to a paper by James Tagg. While bearing a 'HOUSE_OVERSIGHT' Bates stamp, the text itself contains no direct references to Jeffrey Epstein, flight logs, or financial transactions; it is likely a collateral document included in a larger discovery production.
People (2)
| Name | Role | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Fred Brooks | Computer Architect/Author |
Subject of the text, author of 'No Silver Bullet' and 'The Mythical Man Month'
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| James Tagg | Author (Implied) |
Text refers to 'read my paper... at www.jamestagg.com', implying Tagg is the author of this specific document.
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Organizations (3)
| Name | Type | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Tenth World Software Conference |
Venue where the original article by Brooks appeared
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| Wikipedia |
Mentioned as a reference source for listing countries
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| House Oversight Committee |
Implied by the Bates stamp 'HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015921'
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Timeline (1 events)
Locations (1)
| Location | Context |
|---|---|
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Used as an example for data entry decisions (UK vs GB)
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Relationships (2)
It was subsequently expanded into the, now famous, book, The Mythical Man Month.
read my paper The Free Will Universe at www.jamestagg.com/freewillpaper
Key Quotes (3)
"Brooks believed solving real world problems involves understanding the essential complexity of life."Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015921.jpg
Quote #1
"Good news for programmers as this means job security!"Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015921.jpg
Quote #2
"Making software is, therefore, dominated by the design time, and design is all about capturing the essential complexity of a task."Source
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015921.jpg
Quote #3
Full Extracted Text
Complete text extracted from the document (2,184 characters)
In No Silver Bullet – Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering, Fred Brooks explains why writing software is hard, and why machines are not going to do it for us anytime soon. The original article appeared in the proceedings of the Tenth World Software Conference. It was subsequently expanded into the, now famous, book, The Mythical Man Month.
Brooks believed solving real world problems involves understanding the essential complexity of life. ‘Accidental Complexity’ – the simple type – is the time-consuming part of writing software, for example, listing all 220 countries of the world in a website, or making sure all the buttons in an interface line up correctly. These tasks are tedious – you have to look up all the countries in Wikipedia and make decisions, such as whether the United Kingdom will be denoted ‘UK’ or ‘GB’. They don’t need any real ingenuity. ‘Essential Complexity’ is altogether different. It involves understanding the world and setting out the rules in meticulous detail. Brooks argued essential complexity is not susceptible to being sped up by machine processes. Navigating these architectural decisions cannot be automated. He gives us an analogy by comparing writing software to building a house.
When you build a house, an architect designs it, an engineer makes the calculations to ensure it is safe, and a construction firm builds it. The construction process dominates the cost and time. In software projects, an engineer writes a program that precisely defines the design and the construction and calculation is done by a compiler – software that takes the design and makes it machine-readable. Compilers operate in a fraction of a second. Making software is, therefore, dominated by the design time, and design is all about capturing the essential complexity of a task.
This chapter will try to show where essential complexity comes from, why computers can’t tackle this sort of complexity and, therefore, why they can’t write software. Good news for programmers as this means job security!
For a more thorough treatment of the mathematics read my paper The Free Will Universe at www.jamestagg.com/freewillpaper.
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015921
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