Ian K. Duncan
Software engineer
A 17th-century engraved plate of microscopic animalcules found on duckweed.
IndexKnowledge base

Notes

Loose, unpolished notes from my personal knowledge base.

Mostly experimental, published early and revised over time. Field notes, uncollated.

4 notesUpdated 10.06.2026
mentorshipperformanceprinciplessoftware-engineering

2026

  1. Essential Complexity provisional Brooks’s distinction between essential and accidental complexity in software systems software-engineeringprinciples
  2. Phronema provisional Phronema as engineering judgment: mentorship vs dead rules software-engineeringprinciplesmentorship
  3. YAGNI provisional YAGNI as engineering principle and when it becomes a thought-terminating cliché software-engineeringprinciples
  4. Premature Optimization provisional Knuth’s full quote on premature optimization and how the slogan gets misused software-engineeringprinciplesperformance