Ruth — of systems & design

Software And Systems Architecture, more or less

Profile pic: drawing of me (gifted to me); upside down, as if in a reflection, with cloudy sky and little architecture drawing character hanging from frame

Web: https://www.ruthmalan.com
Classes: https://ti.to/bredemeyer/

Last Notes

2025-07-08 05:35:19 UTC

“As usual, the lack of a well-honed proverb to cover the situation reveals a blind spot in the popular culture, and this in turn is probably the reason why so few of us actively practice Problem Avoidance.”
— John Gall, The Systems Bible (The 3rd edition of Systemantics), 2002
via
https://mastodon.social/@josdeweger/114806058281049847

2025-03-29 19:15:08 UTC

“A seat at the table is no good unless design is part of the strategy. To find the right place to apply leverage, designers need to embrace systems thinking.”
“Designers do not, I think, have a coherent sense of what systems thinking is (I have heard it used to refer to design systems more than once and I am sorry to say, that is not it). A good start on systems thinking is Indi Young’s piece on thinking critically”
— @npub1yyd…d3ge
https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/design-is-a-leadership-skill-why-design-goes-wrong-and-how-to-set-it-right-part-3

2025-01-26 13:11:54 UTC

“The model was developed by the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which claims that R1 matches or even surpasses OpenAI’s ChatGPT o1 on multiple key benchmarks but operates at a fraction of the cost.”
“To create R1, DeepSeek had to rework its training process to reduce the strain on its GPUs, a variety released by Nvidia for the Chinese market that have their performance capped at half the speed of its top products, according to Zihan Wang”
— Caiwei Chen
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/01/24/1110526/china-deepseek-top-ai-despite-sanctions/

2024-12-01 16:22:00 UTC

- reply

“Sketching is conducted both to clarify existing ideas and to develop new ones. In the early stages, the artist may wish to preserve many visual options, restricting [..] imagery to global structures, or using notes and signs that implicate multiple alternatives. Paper sketching uses denotation systems that include tolerances and indeterminacies in ways that can amplify the artist's ability to perceive or imagine many options.”
— Fish and Scrivener
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/601802

2024-12-01 05:32:41 UTC

- reply

Bubble diagrams are used in building architecture, but are useful in mapping more conceptual spaces too. Variations include Bubble Maps and Concept Models.
Diagram source: https://illustrarch.com/articles/8702-bubble-diagram-in-architecture.html#google_vignette
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/575/910/391/949/693/original/1d50f907f2e4f055.jpeg

2024-12-01 05:24:56 UTC

Day 1 #AdventOfSystemSeeing
Draw a Bicycle
1. Draw a Bubble Diagram of a Bicycle. Use labelled bubbles (circles) to express the key concepts of a bicycle; use placement and size to convey relationships.
2. Now draw a bicycle.
3. What do we notice (more)? Jot down some notes /observations about drawing to see, to think, ..

2024-10-29 02:23:46 UTC

Michelle Obama “to the men who love us”
Really really powerful.
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/michelle-obama-warns-how-another-trump-presidency-could-affect-women-s-health-222776901881

2024-09-19 22:49:29 UTC

- reply

We’re on a mission to make it the biggest virtual rally ever, y’all!

2024-09-19 22:48:06 UTC

What hashtag are we using for the Oprah-Harris watch party tonight? (8pm Eastern)
https://m.youtube.com/live/iPB0dmWyqZI

2024-09-13 17:20:49 UTC

- reply

CLDs?
Here's Donella Meadows:
"Whole Earth Models and Systems" (1982):
https://donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Whole-Earth-Models-and-Systems.pdf
And Meadows teaching CLDs in 1977:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL_lOoomRTA

2024-08-24 15:35:42 UTC

“A[n architecture] decision view provides a useful complement to the traditional sets of architectural views and viewpoints. It gives an explanatory perspective that illuminates the reasoning process itself and not solely its results.” (Kruchten et al 2009)
Emphasis on “illuminates the reasoning process”
I’ll say things like “it’s a form of asynchronous mentoring to write down the (various) experience(s) and research that informed the decision” and I get looks.
Explanatory perspective. Better