The Fractal Geometry of Software Design
summary
Claim: software is an energy‑supply network where knowledge is the energy, and growth follows measurable power laws — functionality grows roughly linearly, added knowledge grows sublinearly, but interaction complexity grows superlinearly until the system hits human cognitive limits and becomes a big ball of mud. The remedy is fractal structure: minimize integration strength, balance it against distance at each scale (bounded contexts → aggregates → methods) using the rule integration strength xor distance to keep local cohesion and avoid global coupling; this yields fractal geometry of modules.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Introduction and background
- 5:26Energy supply networks explained
- 15:03Growth dynamics in complex systems
- 21:48Galileo’s law of scaling limits
- 28:32Extending growth limits in software
- 32:08Fractals in natural and software systems
- 42:23Balancing integration strength and distance
- 47:44Summary and key takeaways
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