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== Madhav Kumar ==
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Common Threads

#common-threads

Introduction to Common Threads#

I consume a lot of content1, primarily books, blogs, and podcasts, about software engineering. I think about all of it often and try to implement some of the concepts into my workplace.

As I spend more time thinking about the ideas I’ve been exposed to, I’ve begun to notice some commonalities between them. I’d like to crystallize these observations in a series I’m calling “Common Threads”.2 This is partly to compile and share information but mostly to help me keep track of things and be able to reference it in the future.

Why Common Threads?#

It’s a well-known idiom to describe an idea or theme that is present across several different areas. I think the metaphor goes a little deeper though. For this series, the Common Thread is not only the idea shared between the sources. The ideas shared by each book, blog, and podcast are all fibers. The Common Thread is formed by the twisting and spinning of the fibres. The act of defining the Common Thread in a post creates it.

I do not claim originality for this idea. I’m pulling it straight from Wittgenstein:

Why do we call something a “number”? Well, perhaps because it has a—direct— relationship with several things that have hitherto been called number; and this can be said to give it an indirect relation ship to other things we call the same name. And we extend our concept of number as in spinning a thread we twist fibre on fibre. And the strength of the thread does not reside in the fact that some one fibre runs through its whole length, but in the overlapping of many fibres.3

Format#

Since this is a pattern language, each Common Thread will follow the same structure:

  • Name
  • Fibers
  • Definition

Where Fibers are the sources being spun together to create the Common Thread.

The first Common Thread is coming soon to a madhavrkumar.com near you. Subscribe to the RSS feed if you want to follow along.

  1. I deeply dislike the connotations of the word “content” i.e. a product, a thing meant to be consumed for the sake of consumption, slop created by AI to maximize ad revenues. But, it’s a useful word to refer to multiple forms of media. ↩︎

  2. I spent an embarrassingly long time deciding if this period belonged inside or outside of the quotations. As an American, I learned the MLA style in school which places punctuation within the quotation. As a software engineer, however, "Common Threads." !== "Common Threads". Also, according to the MLA apparently the British convention is to place punctuation after the quotation marks. From that same article I learned that the convention stems from a book written in 1855. Why should I hold myself to the stylistic sensibilities of a man who, given the time period, would’ve likely seen me as subhuman? Anyways, I put the period outside of the quotes. ↩︎

  3. Wittgenstein, Ludwig. [Philosophical Investigations](g. Philosophical Investigations. §674 ↩︎

  4. Wow look at me actually using a footnote for a citation instead of self-aware metacommentary. ↩︎