Peopleware Papers: Notes on the Human Side of Software, The

Part VIII. Brave New Software

Introduction

You cannot not communicate. This is sometimes known as the First Law of Human Communication (Watzlawick et al. 1967). All action or inaction is a form of communication — it makes a statement — and all communication is, in some sense, in some sphere, political. From pointless prattle to significant silence, communication has an impact. Language and communication are matters of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. It's the pragmatics of human communication that makes it unavoidably political.

Software is a form of communication. As Ed Yourdon and I said way back in the turbulent 1970s, good software is written to be read; it's a message from one programmer to another programmer — or to a future self. It is ...