# cohesion (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 3 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover cohesion. Page: Feed: --- ## [Second Law of Technodynamics](https://www.linkandth.ink/p/second-law-of-technodynamics) _2026-08-04 · Ivo Velitchkov · Link & Think_ Left without counter-action, coordination control concentrates ## [Technodynamics I: reflexivity](https://www.linkandth.ink/p/technodynamics-i-reflexivity) _2026-07-07 · Ivo Velitchkov · Link & Think_ In which, while looking for the meaning of "techno" in "technodynamics," we end up constructing a coordination matrix ## [The Division of Interpretive Labor](https://www.linkandth.ink/p/the-division-of-interpretive-labor) _2026-06-25 · Ivo Velitchkov · Link & Think_ A biased comparison of Claude-style and GPT-style prose ## [22 Claude-prose Patterns](https://www.linkandth.ink/p/catalog-of-claude-cliches) _2026-06-25 · Ivo Velitchkov · Link & Think_ A catalog of cheap rhetorical patterns ## [Autonomy on Lease](https://www.linkandth.ink/p/autonomy-on-lease) _2026-06-20 · Ivo Velitchkov · Link & Think_ Cohesion with a slope toward power ## [Regulation is just one way to regulate](https://www.linkandth.ink/p/regulation-is-just-one-way-to-regulate) _2026-06-04 · Ivo Velitchkov · Link & Think_ From sanctioning the undesirable to designing it out ## [The Measurement Standard Nobody's Built (So I Did).](https://theansweriscommunity.substack.com/p/the-measurement-standard-nobodys) _2026-06-03 · Eric Higbee · The Answer is Community_ A draft framework for certifying community-strengthening engagement, from relationships to collective power. ## [Two Longbow Moments](https://www.linkandth.ink/p/two-longbow-moments) _2026-05-23 · Ivo Velitchkov · Link & Think_ Yeomen and Vibecoders Recasting the Technocratic Order ## [Join my new subscriber chat!](https://theansweriscommunity.substack.com/p/join-my-new-subscriber-chat) _2026-05-11 · Eric Higbee · The Answer is Community_ A private space for us to converse and connect ## [Your Neighborhood Doesn't Exist (According to the Data)](https://theansweriscommunity.substack.com/p/your-neighborhood-doesnt-exist-according) _2026-05-06 · Eric Higbee · The Answer is Community_ The critical failure of community measurement, how to fix it, and why I need your help to do it. ## [Every Channel. One Login. (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/1R4Uo2asdLnm) _2026-05-06 · **Sponsored**_ 17,000+ live channels, movies and sports on any device. Free trial, no IP lock. ## [Cohesion Spectrum v.2](https://www.linkandth.ink/p/cohesion-spectrum-v2) _2026-05-03 · Ivo Velitchkov · Link & Think_ Zones and Trajectories on the Autonomy Plane ## [But Does it Build Community?](https://theansweriscommunity.substack.com/p/but-does-it-build-community) _2026-04-02 · Eric Higbee · The Answer is Community_ Developing the questions to spur community building within the practice of community engagement. (Reading Time: 6.5 minutes) ## [People, Ideas, and Quotes](https://www.linkandth.ink/p/people-ideas-and-quotes) _2026-04-02 · Ivo Velitchkov · Link & Think_ Yet Another Serendipity Practice ## [Glossary of Serendipity Terms](https://www.linkandth.ink/p/glossary-of-serendipity-terms) _2026-03-25 · Ivo Velitchkov · Link & Think_ The serendipity research has its own vocabulary. ## [“Do you feel like you belong?” and other problematic questions.](https://theansweriscommunity.substack.com/p/do-you-feel-like-you-belong-and-other) _2026-02-04 · Eric Higbee · The Answer is Community_ The case for measuring place-attachment and identity, not belonging. (Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes) ## [What Top Sustainability Standards Get Wrong About Community](https://theansweriscommunity.substack.com/p/what-top-sustainability-standards) _2026-01-07 · Eric Higbee · The Answer is Community_ A review of LEED, SITES, SEED and LBC through the lens of social cohesion. (Reading Time: just under 6 minutes) ## [Across the Great Divide: Clark Anderson of Community Builders](https://theansweriscommunity.substack.com/p/across-the-great-divide-clark-anderson) _2025-12-17 · Eric Higbee · The Answer is Community_ An interview on building civic capacity and trust through engagement. ## [We Measure "Sustainability." Why Not "Community?"](https://theansweriscommunity.substack.com/p/we-measure-sustainability-why-not) _2025-12-03 · Eric Higbee · The Answer is Community_ The fastest path to scaling social cohesion runs through data and measurement. (Estimated reading time: 5 minutes) ## [A Special Request (and Gift!) for Your Support](https://theansweriscommunity.substack.com/p/a-special-request-and-gift-for-your) _2025-11-18 · Eric Higbee · The Answer is Community_ Help buoy this unique voice amidst a surging interest in social and civic renewal. ## [“Process ≠ Product: Why Community Engagement Needs Its Own Scorecard”](https://theansweriscommunity.substack.com/p/process-product-why-community-engagement) _2025-10-29 · Eric Higbee · The Answer is Community_ What do we miss when we conflate project engagement with project outcomes? (Reading time: about 4.5 minutes) ## [Realtime AI Arbitrage Terminal (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/xEyV48AiczTJ) _2025-10-29 · **Sponsored**_ Realtime auto-trading across exchanges with scored setups, backtesting, and risk controls. ## [complexity as entropy](https://explaining.software/archive/complexity-as-entropy/) _2025-03-12 · Explaining Software Design_ In the previous post , I characterized Ron Jeffries' meandering approach to software design as "a shrug in the face of entropy." Some readers seem to have taken this as a strange, flowery metaphor. It wasn't. In this newsletter, our analytic framework is borrowed from information theory: simplicity is a fitness between content and expectation. When we say software is complex, we mean it's… ## [the sudoku affair](https://explaining.software/archive/the-sudoku-affair/) _2025-02-05 · Explaining Software Design_ In 2006, Ron Jeffries wrote a series of posts describing his attempts to build a Sudoku solver. He began by wrapping a class around a simple datatype for the board — essentially a List\[Option\[Int\]\] — and after that, there isn't much to tell. As Peter Seibel puts it: \[H\]e basically wandered around for the rest of his five blog postings fiddling with the representation, making it more “object… ## [state and trace](https://explaining.software/archive/state-and-trace/) _2025-01-15 · Explaining Software Design_ When we say fiction belongs to a genre, we mean that it builds upon familiar themes and structures. By assigning a genre — a slasher flick, or a comedy of manners, or a murder mystery — we shape the audience's expectations. Genre is a locus ; it makes the rest of the explanation less surprising. And this is the point. People like genre fiction because it's familiar; it can be read easily, or even… ## [structuralism](https://explaining.software/archive/structuralism/) _2025-01-09 · Explaining Software Design_ The idea of structure , as used in this newsletter, is nothing new. It was first introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure in 1916, in his enormously influential Course in General Linguistics . In it, Saussure describes language as a graph, and words as vertices. Between these vertices, there are negative edges representing difference, and positive edges representing signification and similarity. To… ## [senior developer agents](https://explaining.software/archive/senior-developer-agents/) _2024-11-27 · Explaining Software Design_ When you're responsible for a junior developer, there's an early, crucial milestone: they know when to ask for help. Before this milestone, every task must be carefully curated. Each day of radio silence — be it from embarrassment or enthusiasm — is a cause for concern. Achieving this milestone can be difficult. It requires the developer to intuit the difference between forward motion and… ## [the death of the architect](https://explaining.software/archive/the-death-of-the-architect/) _2024-10-30 · Explaining Software Design_ Once upon a time, every project began with the creation of a canonical design document. This was called the system architecture , because it "rightly implie\[d\] the notion of the arch , or prime, structure." 1 Then, documents would be written for each module. These would provide detailed instructions for how the module should be implemented. Often, there would be diagrams for the control flow of… ## [making things better](https://explaining.software/archive/making-things-better/) _2024-10-23 · Explaining Software Design_ Previously , we explored how abstract explanations, paired with intent, become specific. And in our case, the intent is almost always to improve our software. But what does this actually mean? To begin, let's consider this metaphor: Things are looking up This is a statement of optimism: things are improving, and we expect this trend to continue. There are, however, a wide range of up-metaphors.… ## [intent and implication](https://explaining.software/archive/intent-and-implication/) _2024-10-16 · Explaining Software Design_ There was, in the mid 2010s, a popular formula for explaining a new startup: "Uber, but for \_\_\_\_." This was a metaphor: the startup, despite targeting a different market, was similar to Uber. It was, however, a fairly ambiguous metaphor; there were many ways that a company could resemble Uber. The most visible facet of Uber was their use of a mobile app to affect the physical world. This was, at… ## [structures as paths](https://explaining.software/archive/structures-as-paths/) _2024-10-09 · Explaining Software Design_ In the fractal-metaphor , our software is an open space. Each reader traverses that space, noting new details as they come into view. When our software is well-designed, these details are small and incremental. But this isn't quite right. If it were, movement through our software would satisfy the triangle inequality: In Euclidean geometry, if AB and BC are not collinear, then a shorter path AC… ## [decoupling in depth](https://explaining.software/archive/decoupling-in-depth/) _2024-10-02 · Explaining Software Design_ In his influential paper On the Criteria To Be Used in Decomposing Systems into Modules , David L. Parnas offers some simple, timeless advice: if two things change together, they belong together. This is not, in itself, an answer. It simply replaces a nebulous question — do these belong in the same module? — with something more concrete. In this newsletter, we are trying to do something similar.… ## [Zero-Persistence E2EE (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/8kg7v5QApZ2j) _2024-10-02 · **Sponsored**_ End-to-end encryption with client-side WebCrypto and volatile memory. ## [similar, but different](https://explaining.software/archive/similar-but-different/) _2024-09-25 · Explaining Software Design_ In the software design literature, cohesion is often referred to by a different name: single responsibility. As Sandi Metz explains it: When everything in a class is related to its central purpose, the class is said to be highly cohesive or to have a single responsibility. 1 To determine if a method belongs inside a class, Metz suggests posing it as a question. "Mr. Bicycle Gear, what is your… ## [transparent like frosted glass](https://explaining.software/archive/transparent-like-frosted-glass/) _2024-09-18 · Explaining Software Design_ Sherry Turkle wrote her study of the culture of computing, The Second Self , "on an Apple II computer that had, quite literally, been torn bare." 1 Its circuitry had been exposed, and its operating system replaced. Even her word processor felt close to the machine; it required her to use "a formal language of nested delimiters" that could be easily "translated into electrical impulses." This… ## [the simplicity of a fractal](https://explaining.software/archive/the-simplicity-of-a-fractal/) _2024-09-10 · Explaining Software Design_ Previously, we've looked at code generation in both Rails and Thrift . But unlike Thrift, the code generated by Rails is meant to be changed. Any change is fine, so long as it's not too surprising ; the only limit is our judgement. Rails, then, doesn't fit the limb-metaphor . Our explanation will not always end with the model. Even so, the model remains a locus ; for many, it suffices. The only… ## [the simplicity of a limb](https://explaining.software/archive/the-simplicity-of-a-limb/) _2024-09-03 · Explaining Software Design_ In their paper on Evolvability , Marc Kirschner and John Gerhart discuss the separation of concerns within our genetic code. They pay special attention to limbs: The limb is a complex structure with precisely placed bone, cartilage, muscle, nerves, and vascular elements, and one might think it is difficult for such a structure to change in evolution. 1 Every vertebrate uses the same genes to… ## [better explanations through coupling](https://explaining.software/archive/better-explanations-through-coupling/) _2024-08-27 · Explaining Software Design_ Previously, we explored how coupling and cohesion are not separable concepts. When our software is cohesive, everything fits. Each part is shaped by its relationships. Together, they comprise an undirected graph, which we will call a structure . Each structure is an amplifier; by explaining one vertex, we begin to explain the others. Often, these vertices have a natural order. There is one vertex… ## [glossary](https://explaining.software/archive/glossary/) _2024-08-23 · Explaining Software Design_ complexity The sum of every explanation . Weighted heavily towards future explanations . Measured in bits, but only relative to your audience's expectations . See also: a brief introduction coupling The degree to which two things tend to be explained together. Sometimes it makes things simpler, and sometimes it doesn't. See also: coupling as co-explanation decoupling in depth explanation The core…