Elevator Pitch
Gedankenexperiment is a way of thinking that maps a theory to possible causes and consequences when no clues or indicators are available to validate the theory. In this talk, I want to introduce the term I made-up, Ersatzgedankenexperiment which is simply brainstorming in a rather structured manner.
Description
Curiouser and curiouser!- Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Gedankenexperiment (Gedankenerfahrung or thought experiment) is a way of thinking that maps a theory to possible causes and consequences (to shed light on these), when no clues or indicators are available to validate the theory. This concept is often used by philosophers and scientists since, under some conditions, it is almost impossible to conduct or repeat some kinds of experiments physically.
In this talk, I want to introduce the term I made-up, Ersatzgedankenexperiment, which is simply brainstorming in a rather structured manner, or conducting Gedankenexperiment when it is even possible to repeat the experiment or when there are traces and evidences and trust me, it’s all applicable to our software development and technology related routines as well.
Gedankenexperiment follows a structured and organized process. The added value of Gedankenexperiment comes through at this point: We start considering alternatives forcing ourselves to use and evaluate different approaches. It helps us get out of our comfort zones, embrace innovation and move forward.
Today, a Gedankenexperiment is generally viewed from seven different perspectives: Prefactual, counterfactual, semi-factual, prediction, hindcasting, retrodiction and backcasting and in this talk, we will go over some striking examples altogether.
In order to show how these perspectives could be applied to my humble Ersatzgedankenexperiment tweak, during this talk, I will go over an example involving a software system in production facing various problems (Database Management System going out of service, for instance) and we will go over the possible brainstorming questions with the audience.
Of course, in technology related fields, we would possibly have a plethora of logs and traces that would help us investigate this example situation, keeping an ear close to the ground but still, some of these questioning would lead us to alternative parameters or situations to be taken into consideration. This is Ersatzgedankenexperiment-ing!
Anyway, Gedankenexperiment should not be interpreted as the sole process to prove or disprove hypotheses. Nor should it be seen as a tool that is out of reach, serving only philosophers and scientists. It is even applicable to our daily tasks and problems. As we all like brainstorming, it would be a good idea to start finding out what type of questions work for what type of issues and start exploring answers right away and with this talk I hope I would attract the attention of the audience to think more in alternative ways.
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.- Albert Einstein
Notes
I am Nurettin Mert Aydın, group manager at ICterra. As a computer engineer, I have been actively working in software industry for over 15 years and I have worked in various projects (web applications, B2B integration, migration to cloud, simulation to categorize a few) and with different titles. Apart from my contribution to pure technology I love thinking, thinking in alternative ways and encouraging people to think.
IMHO, my love for reading various subjects has an inevitable contribution to this. And through this talk I guess I will make people think more, think in alternative ways, which is quite important in building next generation global solutions involving teams with different backgrounds.