The Cache Flush

May 18 2023 10 ep. 7 mins 96

The Cache Flush Podcast artwork

A programmer's audio scrapbook, from Avdi Grimm. Short selected readings from books and papers at the intersection of code and ethics, sociology, psychology, politics, history, and systems thinking.

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The Cache Flush Episode 13: The Grammar of Systems

May 18 2023 7 mins

Systems can be simple, complicated, complex, or chaotic… but even that model is too simple, because they can also be all of these at once! Notes:

The Cache Flush 012: Computer Power and Human Reason

May 10 2023 7 mins

In 1964, Joseph Weizenbaum created the famous "ELIZA" program, with which a human user could hold a simulated "therapy" session. The implications of the human reactions to ELIZA and later research inspired Weizenbaum to write one of the formative cautionary reflections on ethics in artificial intelligence. Today, as ChatGPT storms the world, this book is more relevant than ever.

The Cache Flush Episode 11: The Closed World

May 03 2023 10 mins

In this episode, selections from Chapter 2 of The Closed World: Computers and the Politics of Discourse in Cold War America. Notes Transcript This is the Cache Flush, a programmer’s audio scrapbook. This is episode 11, recorded Sunday, April 30th, 2023. Today I have some selections from chapter two of the Closed World Computers and […]

The Cache Flush Episode 010: Making Errors, Making Sense, Making Use

Apr 26 2023 6 mins

A semi-reboot of the show. I'll be reading selections from my "software humanities" library - books and papers at the intersection of code and history, psychology, politics, ethics, ecology, and systems thinking.

009 Sponsorship Specifications

Booknotes from Domain-Driven Design and Reactive Design Patterns, and some notes on mentorship vs sponsorship.

008 Reconstituted sophisticated opinions

Thoughts on strong opinions and terms for complexity; some booknotes from Reactive Design Patterns and Domain-Driven Design; notes from Jessica Kerr.

007 Silver duct tape factories

Booknotes on Domain Driven Design, and conversations with Jessica Kerr about silver bullets and why your own codebase always feels full of holes.

006 Persistence of Impostor Relationships

Musings on the over-use of the term “impostor syndrome”, what it means to persist an object, and some booknotes on “Understanding Systems”.

005 Jessica Kerr on the true barriers to change

A conversation I had with Jessica Kerr, who says that when it comes to change, technical debt is not our biggest obstacle.

004 Kids, Editors, Engineering

Musings on the meaning of software engineering, editor evolution, and balancing parenting with work.