Tesugen Replaced

“I can control the flow of the paint, there is no accident”

You can’t not do design

On April 4, 2002, I posted a lengthy entry to the Test-Driven Development mailing list. I had followed a discussion that touched on what software design really is, whether refactoring can be considered to be design, and whether "emergent" design is still design.

What I think I tried to say in my post was that

I mentioned two examples from the world of art. The first was a sculpture competition I had heard of, where the winning contestant had started by smashing her block of plaster of Paris with a hammer.

The second example was how photographer Helmut Newton used to meticulously prepare things, instructing his models, arranging props, setting up lighting, and then taking just one photograph (or at least very few).

The sculptor in the first example smashed the block to pieces because she couldn't see a direction it wanted to go. The perfectly square block didn't want to be anything particular.

Now, Helmut Newton might have gotten lots of cues from the set or from the model, much as the sculptor got cues from the smashed block. As I wrote this, though, I must have felt that Helmut Newton did all of his "design" up front, and then merely "executed" this design, whereas the sculptor designed as she went, guided by the cracks and dents in the material.

My point was that you can't not make design decisions. I wrote that this would be equivalent to "closing your eyes, whisking your brush on the palette ... and ... beating [it] on the canvas for a while, then opening your eyes to see what you've accomplished". Or in the example of the sculptor, it would have been to stop after pounding the block for a while. (But unless blindfolded, even that would be a design decision.)

As I remember it, the discussion explored the boundaries of design and implementation. And what I think I meant to say was that

Because you always have preconceptions. And following them is a design decision.

Because there are always cues in the context. And following them is a design decision.

I also think I meant to say that

Because implementing teaches you new things. And not following them is a bad design decision.

So, why am I doing this?

I more or less gave up writing Tesugen. And that has bothered me ever since. Perhaps I have realized all along that it is an outlet I need. But I reasoned that I wrote for stimulation, and that work was my new stimulation.

Back in my head I have always thought about starting to write for Tesugen again.

But work came with a new weblog (about the social web and starting a company). And I need to keep things apart, I need an order. For the company weblog, the order was pretty clear. But I wasn't sure quite what Tesugen was about.

While I wrote actively, I felt OK about it being about everything that happened to catch my attention. Rather, that was the only way it could work. I started a Swedish weblog, and one called "Irrational Software" about software development not being engineering, and a small one about a development project I thought I was starting. And eventually I folded each of these into Tesugen. One weblog.

So, why am I doing this? To figure out what Tesugen was about (I have a hunch). And to figure out how it can fit in alongside everything else.

I have a hunch.

It is not about architecture but architecture as a venture. Coming up with ideas for buildings, evolving them in teams, building them, experiencing them, then evolving them once they are built.

Exactly the same for software development.

And for writing. And moviemaking. And making music, television series, art.

It is not about cities and planning cities but ... you get the idea.

All the things involved in or related to these things; communication, semiotics, having and conveying ideas, design, deconstruction, sketches, diagrams, prototypes, brainstorming, releasing early and often, iterating, refactoring, mistakes made and learnt from, creative accidents, creative juxtapositioning, metaphors, omitting (eliminating) the needless, adaptation, defining the constraints and exploiting them, keeping the flame.

I'm not sure why I am doing this. But I think I'll just go ahead and move things here that fit into this order, and getting rid of the rest.

Replacing Tesugen

Five and a half years ago, I started a weblog named "Tesugen".

I had no intention with it at the time, but I wrote and wrote and eventually realized that it served a purpose. For me, that is.

A year and a half ago I started a company with my friend Svante. Before then, I wrote less and less, but by then I explained the continuing decline in posts with the fact that my job had become inspiring. I liked the company I worked for a lot, and the people there, but I didn't find the work itself inspiring. And I felt that Tesugen had the purpose of inspiring me the way I wanted my work to be inspiring.

There's some truth to that. But since starting the company, I have realized that Tesugen served another purpose as well. Not of satisfying a need for writing, although I definitely like to write, but something else.

The purpose of our company is to make work less like work, or to make a living doing things we both enjoy. But still, I think I need to create and express things that aren't related to work or to making a living (or at least that aren't aimed at that; I have no problem making money as a side effect).

So, with that, I today start replacing Tesugen, post by post. When I'm "done", the old Tesugen will no longer exist; everything interesting will have ended up here, annotated, rewritten, or just copied and pasted.

I will start at the beginning, delete things that aren't interesting (lots of that), and move things here that are (to me).