# Ideas

> Laws, methods, and mental models that recur across my projects, decisions, and writing.

- HTML version: https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas

### [Amdahl's Law](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/amdahls-law.md)

The serial part of a system sets the ceiling on the speedup available from parallel work.

### [Conway's Law](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/conways-law.md)

The structure of a system tends to reproduce the communication structure of the organisation that built it.

### [Data Mesh](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/data-mesh.md)

A decentralised approach to analytical data built on domain ownership, data products, a self-serve platform, and federated governance.

### [Domain-Driven Design](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/domain-driven-design.md)

Model software around the language, rules, and boundaries of the problem domain.

### [DORA Metrics](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/dora-metrics.md)

A research-backed set of software delivery measures that keeps throughput and instability in view together.

### [EventStorming](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/eventstorming.md)

A collaborative workshop method for discovering how a domain behaves by mapping events and the forces around them.

### [FLP Impossibility](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/flp-impossibility.md)

A deterministic consensus protocol cannot guarantee both safety and termination in a fully asynchronous system if even one process may crash.

### [Goodhart's Law](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/goodharts-law.md)

When a measure becomes a target, pressure to improve the number can break its connection to the outcome it once represented.

### [Human in the Loop](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/human-in-the-loop.md)

An interaction model in which a person contributes to a decision before the system can continue.

### [Human on the Loop](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/human-on-the-loop.md)

An interaction model in which automation acts within set bounds while a person monitors it and can intervene.

### [Jevons' Paradox](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/jevons-paradox.md)

Efficiency can lower the effective cost of a resource enough that total use rises instead of falls.

### [Reverse Conway Maneuver](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/reverse-conway-maneuver.md)

Design team boundaries and communication paths to encourage the system architecture you want.

### [The Two Generals Problem](https://robbiepalmer.me/ideas/two-generals-problem.md)

No finite exchange of messages can guarantee agreement when any message or acknowledgement may be lost.

---

Markdown index of this site: https://robbiepalmer.me/llms.txt
