About couldbe.net:

Systems - it's a personal affliction.

This is my systems blog, or modeling blog.

If you had the personal defect that seems to afflict me, then you would be obsessed with systems. The obsession includes not only systems, but parts of systems, even just models of parts of systems. I've been nutty about systems since I was too young to remember why.

I like to think about them. I like to pretend that I understand one or another systems. I hope you are very suspicious of anyone who says they understand this or that system. Systems tend to be interconnected and therefor much more random than we seem to give them credit for.

Since I started programming in college in 1973, and more seriously in recent decades, I even like to think about building models of systems with computers. 

Even just words make great models. From the parables in early religions to current ideas about economics and politics, we're all accustomed to this or that prophet or enthusiast building models out of words. Then they come to us and sell the model as a system for one or another purpose.

Even a child likes predictability and reassurance.

There is a concept in mathematics and programming sometimes called Turing Complete. A similar concept calls it a State Machine.

The basic idea is that in such a system, you put in the same inputs and you always get the same outputs or result. It's a dreamy world that programmers and accountants and scientists and love, because it's so predictable and reassuring.

It's also a fantasy, at least in the real world. This is because building real models of any consequence that are anything close to Turing Complete is pretty close to a joke due to the inevitable complexity of real situations. But the allure remains, regardless.

Compared to my career...

By day, I get paid to build models  - it's called "computer software".  Commercial success in this world means it's usually limited to something very simple, such as keeping track of a transaction involving money or a resource.

That leaves me wondering about a lot of systems that never get modeled out in any kind of a logical or complete way. The same ones that philosophers, historians, and economists concern themselves with. We've been building those thought systems for centuries, and only recently thinking about what happens if we model them out with a computer first.

So this is my site to build such models. Most of the time, it's just models built out of words. I don't know what I'm doing any more than anyone else, but  the models you see here aren't intended as correct, just one attempt to model something. I do it because it fascinates me, not because I'm competent at it.

What kind of models would you see here?

The models that I try to build here want to be complete in some conceptual way. These models want to make sense to me, not just be opinions for a high-school-like debating contest. My goal isn't persuasion, in a sense it doesn't even matter if a model is close to being right. It's about trying to balance out competing forces and see what shakes out. I'm sure I'll do that wrong too, but at least there's an intention to start out with.

Models that I like to build tend to be more about conjecture. They are more prescriptive than predictive. Lots of wishful and deluded thinking mixed in.

I've got personal experiences and observations too, but I do try to keep the opinions that are more about my personal experience on my personal blog. And I maintain a programming blog too, because that's a totally separate problem area.

Or, for a more complete listing of all our little shop's sites, go here.

What's with the cycling thing?

Much of what I write here gets thought about when I'm doing my other favorite hobby. Seems I've got this jones for cycling - it's been that way for a while. Gives me too much time to think about stuff I would otherwise be best leaving alone. Oh well.