RE: Quality of source material from Development

["Gilger.John" <JGilger -at- acresgaming -dot- com>]

Bruce,

Interesting poem. I like it.

There aren't really only two types of thinkers. Perhaps at a
sufficiently high granularity, there are two archetypes of thinkers, but
even that is a stretch.

In the Briggs-Meyers personality tests, they attempt to explain that
miscommunication is a function of personality type. In the Programmer's
Stone they show that it is more probably the result of how they think
and their mental maps.

After reading it, I realized that many of the most obdurate people I've
had to deal with exhibit "packer" tendencies in their thinking. They
have difficulty in seeing the similarities in things and seem to focus
on treating each idea or concept as something totally new, requiring a
systematic examination starting at square one. I tend to take something
new, run a mental version of diff on it and examine the results. I find
that there is much less ground to cover when learning new things this
way.

John

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Byfield [mailto:bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com]
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2001 01:21 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Cc: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Quality of source material from Development


Gilger.John wrote:

>Some time ago I read a thesis on methods of thought at
>http://www.melloworld.com/ProgStone/ProgStone.html. It is an
interesting
>piece that ties into this discussion about developers and the input
they
>provide. It is long but well worth your time to read.
>
>In a very succinct nutshell, there are two types of thinkers, "mappers"
>and "packers". 
>
Thanks for the interesting article, John.  The idea that there are only 
two types of thinkers doesn't quite fit my personal map ;-) but I think 
the division is useful.  IInterestingly enough, the same distinction is 
made in a poem by Robert Graves:

In Broken Images

He is quick, thinking in clear images;
I am slow, thinking in broken images.

He becomes dull, trusting to his clear images;
I become sharp, mistrusting my broken images,

Trusting his images, he assumes their relevance;
Mistrusting my images, I question their relevance.

Assuming their relevance, he assumes the fact,
Questioning their relevance, I question the fact.

When the fact fails him, he questions his senses;
When the fact fails me, I approve my senses.

He continues quick and dull in his clear images;
I continue slow and sharp in my broken images.

He in a new confusion of his understanding;
I in a new understanding of my confusion.

- Robert Graves


-- 
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177



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