TITLE: Sharing Control
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: May 18, 2018 1:24 PM
DESC:
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BODY:
Sidney Lumet, in his book Making Movies, writes:
Arthur Miller's first, and I think, only novel, Focus,
was, in my opinion, every bit as good as his first produced
play, All My Sons. I once asked him why, if he was
equally talented in both forms, he chose to write plays. Why
would he give up the total control of the creative process
that a novel provides to write instead for communal control,
where a play would first go into the hands of a director and
then pass into the hands of a cast, set designer, producer,
and so forth? His answer was touching. He loved seeing what
his work evoked in others. The result could contain revelations,
feelings, and ideas that he never knew existed when he wrote
the play. That's what he hoped for.
Writing software for people to use is something quite different
from writing a play for audiences to watch, but this paragraph
brought to mind experiences I had as a grad student and new
faculty member. As a part of my doctoral work, I implemented
a expert system shells for a couple of problem-solving styles.
Experts and grad students in domains such as chemical
engineering, civil engineering, education, manufacturing, and
tax accounting used these shells to build expert systems in
their domains. I often found myself in the lab with these
folks as they used my tools. I learned a lot by watching them
and discussing with them the languages implemented in the tools.
Their comments and ideas sometimes changed how I thought about
the languages and tools, and I was able to fold some of these
changes back into the systems.
Software design can be communal, too. This is, of course, one
of the cornerstones of agile software development. Giving up
control can help us write better software, but it can also be
a source of the kind of pleasure I imagine Miller got from
working to bring his plays to life on stage.
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