Posts in book-review
Book review: The Unaccountability Machine
- 13 September 2026
I’ve been interested in why organizations work (or seem to not work, despite everyone in them being good people). Another book cited the book “The Unaccountability machine” (wikipedia, HelMet libraries) as being related to this topic, so I checked it out. In the end, the book did provide some thoughts on this, mainly through the lens of complex webs of decision making and accountability sinks. The first half was most relevant to me; the second half ventured into economics and society (which was still interesting, but not my main focus).
Book review: First, break all the rules
- 26 April 2026
I recently read the book First, break all the rules, based on seeing it referred to in another source. It is one of these things about management, and I hoped to learn something that would help me in my job. It seemed to be a bit more practical and useful than some management books, and it was roughly true.
Book review: Systemantics
- 15 December 2025
I read the book Systemantics by John Gall. I saw some reference to it from another book, and Systemantics was short, so I figured why not. In the end, I’m glad I did - while it’s not scientific book, it’s given me a way to put various problems into words, which will probably be useful.
RSE lessons from Civil Engineering
- 31 July 2025
I have had a long-running metaphor of {academic researchers, research software engineers} being like {architects, structural engineers}. The basic idea is that coming up with interesting and worthwhile ideas/designs is a distinct field from giving ideas “structural integrity” (=reproduciblity and technical rigor).
