Tech — Work — Ramblings

by Mike Kalvas

I see you're not using JavaScript (which is awesome!) on one of my pages that uses it to provide a better experience. If you see something not working right, please let me know. My site should work exactly the same without it apart from any exceptions noted here.

I use prism.min.js to do syntax highlighting. It clocks in at 23kb total in size. Since the majority of the writing I do involves coding, I personally find this to be a worthwhile trade off. If you choose to keep this disabled, rest assured, the code examples are still there, they just may have some extra whitespace and obviously no syntax highlighting.

I do no tracking at all and am a zealot about keeping my pages as small as possible. If you're reading a page of mine that transfers more than about 250kb over the wire (including my most gratuitous indulgence — fonts) I've messed up.

So, if you'd like to have a slightly richer experience, consider enabling javascript for my site and I promise your trust won't be misplaced.

202401291458 The purpose of the parts may not be the purpose of the whole

In 202203210833 Systems thinking, the purpose of all the elements of a system may be aligned to individual or shared ends. However the result of the system may not align with those purposes. It’s even possible for the purpose of the whole to be counter to the purpose of the elements.¹

This can also result in a hierarchy of sub-systems (202402201204 Resilient, self-organizing systems will generate hierarchies). It can be challenging to keep this hierarchy aligned to the desired outcomes.

Meadows, D. H., & Wright, D. (2011). Thinking in systems: A primer (Nachdr.) (pp. 16). Chelsea Green Pub. ↩