Abstract
Fine-grain case studies of scientific inquiry, lessons from linguistics on metaphoric thinking, the epistemology of Charles Sanders Peirce, recent work on architectural image-schemata, along with the computer world's own theorist, Peter Naur, all suggest that software developers (frequently dulled and desiccated from overdosing on 'Cartesian' methodologies) could benefit from imbibing a little 'mysticism' not the wave-your-hands woo-woo kind but the more ineffable hunch and gut side of human cognition. Scholarly publications in their final polished forms rarely admit that stories, jokes, eroticism, and dreams were the fertile seeds that germinated into 'serious' results. This essay looks to these 'closet' sources, non-reductionist, non-self conscious, metaphorical, aformal modes of thought as the salvation of a profession gone awry. It is notably proto-scientific image-schemata that retain our attention as a pragmatic tool for improving the fecundity of Agile methodology, at its roots, so to speak. The necessary context is provided by Peter Naur's fundamental insights about software development as 'theory building' coupled with an elaboration of the Agile concept of storytelling.
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Digital Library
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Index Terms
Rubber ducks, nightmares, and unsaturated predicates: proto-scientific schemata are good for agile
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Rubber ducks, nightmares, and unsaturated predicates: proto-scientific schemata are good for agile
OOPSLA '10: Proceedings of the ACM international conference on Object oriented programming systems languages and applicationsFine-grain case studies of scientific inquiry, lessons from linguistics on metaphoric thinking, the epistemology of Charles Sanders Peirce, recent work on architectural image-schemata, along with the computer world's own theorist, Peter Naur, all ...
Agile anthropology and Alexander's architecture: an essay in three voices
OOPSLA '09: Proceedings of the 24th ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object oriented programming systems languages and applicationsDuring its formative decades the software community looked twice to the theories of Christopher Alexander for inspiration, both times failing to completely master the architect's most useful insights. Now a third opportunity presents itself with ...
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OOPSLA '09During its formative decades the software community looked twice to the theories of Christopher Alexander for inspiration, both times failing to completely master the architect's most useful insights. Now a third opportunity presents itself with ...







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