Summary Write for Architecture for the IEEE Computer Society

QUESTION

ANSWER

Link: https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/the-professional-architect

The author begins by explaining how things in life are so uncertain. He further adds by explaining how aneurysm has taken a toll on most of the male members in his family with a recent victim being his nephew who died after an intense workout due to the aneurysm.

As a sceptical but practical being, anyone would try to take preventive measures for any such malaise. Even Grady took this until one day he found bulge using 3 D technology. Also though he recovered in 9months, emotional and spiritual recovery is yet to be over.

He narrates beautifully the essence of how a vision and perseverance can lead to incredible discoveries and invention. He was wondering the person who wrote the software for CT scan or MRI due to which he is alive today must have had the trigger to do something for humanity. And then Grady eloquently linked monitors, drugs manufacturing units, Anaesthesia machine to the list of things that assisted him in surviving. And then he takes his perception to the next level -holistically. Starting from ignition of cars to lift, from banking system where one keeps hard earned money to avionics of plane someone with a vision inspired everything. But the important thing in all of this is the software that runs is just bits of 1’s & 0’s over which human story or vision exists. Important thing about successful visionaries is they do not let their dream die , they persevere till the end.

“Simplicity is an important concept of any software design.”

Elegantly Grady explains how software engineering has wrapped 1’s & 0’s into a narration of a beautiful story. Towards the end, Grady concludes saying every beautiful & elegant software is something that is a product of the central & balanced activity of innovation- Discovery, Invention & Implementation. High ceremony activities sequentialize these activities, and low ceremony activities overlap these. But an amateur software designer would search for magic- which is a farce. The right balance of all three activities is the best thing in software design. Finally, he advises not to be bound by our thinking models but thinks beyond that as software engineering is the self-corrective process with its measures for right checks and balances. To conclude, this podcast beautifully inspires us to have a vision in our lives and motivates us to transform that vision into 1’s and 0’s. This way we would be not only living our dream but also helping humanity and contributing to the process of change we would like to see.