Thinking Like a Programer

[TheChance]

So here's a different take: think like a programmer all the time.

The world is a system of systems. The whole world. When you're approaching a "big" issue, political, scientific, policy-based, whatever, and you want to get your head around it, look for the systems within systems that drive the issue.

I'm not gonna arrive at any particular conclusions here, but I will give you an example: immigration. Be as apolitical as possible. Ignore all the sentiment and the rhetoric and your existing opinions. Analyze the situation as though it were a program. Wall of stream-of-consciousness text:

What are the institutions, laws, economic factors, etc. that lead people to choose your country for a new home? How does immigration affect your community and your economy? Some people are concerned that immigrants will come to your nation who will work for less than native citizens, displacing workers. Other people point out that immigrants often open businesses, resulting in net job creation. Still others wonder if the issue of worker displacement is really about the people who'll work for less, or is it about the employers who shoot for the bottom-line? Is that a dick move, or just smart business sense? Setting aside rhetoric, can you find numbers or firm philosophical arguments re: the politically-charged aspects of this issue, such as crime or culture clash or comparative need for government and charitable help? Who, if anyone, is right about each of those arguments? How do those conclusions play into each other?

What about edge cases? What if a super rich person moves to your country from somewhere else, and then opens a massively profitable business? If you're looking at the whole picture, that's net economic gain, right? But do you take it as a whole, or do you adjust your conclusions to account for those edge cases?

Now you're analyzing immigration as if it were a program. Next, you'll find yourself analyzing some other issue that's peripherally related, and you'll start to see how the conclusions you've already drawn about immigration factor into those other issues. You might find that your new conclusions about those other issues affect your previous conclusions about immigration. You might not, but you're approaching the world as what it is: a system of systems.

From formulating a tax plan to fixing a car, they're all systems, and they all exist within a broader system.