A Pattern Language
This won’t really be a blog post, it’s just that I’m reading A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander - you know, where the whole “design patterns” idea started - and I’ve already found a quote that resonated with me on a very deep level, so I wanted to share it.
This is a fundamental view of the world. It says that when you build a thing you cannot merely build that thing in isolation, but must also repair the world around it, and within it, so that the larger world at that one place becomes more coherent, and more whole; and the thing which you make takes its place in the web of nature, as you make it.
I find this quote hauntingly beautiful and I believe this applies to software just as much as it applies to architecture, and to anything else you can “make” really. If you liked it or feel the same way you should probably read A Pattern Language and The Timeless Way of Building, they’re on Amazon. :)