Lately I'm finding that "grow then split" as opposed to "split then grow" can be applied all around, in code, requirements, teams inside an organization, how I structure files in Obsidian, etc. I really like that heuristic.
The earliest source I know for this idea is "The Timeless Way of Building" (which I haven't fully read yet):
> Within this process, every individual act of building is a process in which space gets differentiated. It is not a process of addition, in which preformed parts are combined to create a whole, but a process of unfolding, like the evolution of an embryo, in which the whole precedes the parts, and actually gives birth to them, by splitting.
I really like that quote, although it sounds deeper than I think it is. Every act of building is a decrease in entropy, but it isn't always grow-then-split: installing plumbing, for example, as part of a design exercise, but it has to take the whole into account.
Lately I'm finding that "grow then split" as opposed to "split then grow" can be applied all around, in code, requirements, teams inside an organization, how I structure files in Obsidian, etc. I really like that heuristic.
The earliest source I know for this idea is "The Timeless Way of Building" (which I haven't fully read yet):
> Within this process, every individual act of building is a process in which space gets differentiated. It is not a process of addition, in which preformed parts are combined to create a whole, but a process of unfolding, like the evolution of an embryo, in which the whole precedes the parts, and actually gives birth to them, by splitting.
I really like that quote, although it sounds deeper than I think it is. Every act of building is a decrease in entropy, but it isn't always grow-then-split: installing plumbing, for example, as part of a design exercise, but it has to take the whole into account.
But overall, grow-split works well for me... :)