A program is the Theory in its builders' minds, not the code
math_rachel · x · 2026-08-19
Rachel Thomas summarizes Naur's "Programming as Theory Building": a program is the Theory held by the people who build and maintain it — the constraints and trade-offs that shaped it, why it works, what changes fit its design. The complexity to reduce is Theory complexity, and the needed information doesn't live in the code.
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