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Software Engineering

The Primary Objective of Software Design: Minimizing Total Cognitive Load

Over my half-career in software development, I've started to collect some insights (or at least opinions) about how software can be built so that it is easy to maintain, use, and extend. Usually we hear of principles such as modularity, abstraction, loose coupling, and separation of concerns, and each of these is important to strive for. But I've found that behind all of these, there is a single, unifying principle – the reduction of cognitive load. In this post I talk about what I've come to think of as the primary objective of software design: minimizing total cognitive load of all future users and maintainers of your software.

Edvard Munch"s the Scream but setting at a computer, looking at the screen, and typing angrily

Cowboys and Consultants Don't Need Unit Tests

As a developer, my understanding and respect for software testing has been slow coming because in my previous work I have been an engineer and a consultant, and in these roles it wasn't yet obvious how important testing really is. But over the past year I have finally gained an appropriate respect and appreciation for testing; and it's even improving the way I write code. In this post I will explain where I've come from and how far I've traveled in my testing practices. I'll then list out some of the more important principles I've picked up along the way.