The IC3 Blue Train - A little journal about design, marketing, sales and other matters

The law of conservation of energy for software

Last night I dreamt that I earned a contract with Apple by explaining to Steve Jobs my law of conservation of energy for software. This law stipulates that, in an isolated system comprising designers, programmers, testers and end-users, the energy spent to execute a defined function is constant. The more energy spent in the proper design and flawless development of the software, the easier it is for the user to perform the function effectively.

By function I mean a simple application component like insert a picture, create a table, print a page, etc. For, in the case of a complete application, another law applies: the more energy spent to expand the application with additional functions, the more difficult it becomes for the user to master the application, even if he/she uses a limited number of basic functions. We all know the frustrations of dealing with software bloat.

In my dream (sigh!), Steve was so impressed by my exposé that he asked me to work on the design of a MacBook Light, a Macintosh stripped off of all features not used by the majority of users. I said: “You mean a kind of Macintosh for Dummies?”. “Absolutely not”, he replied, “dummies choose Vista.”

More on this in a later entry.

PS --- I really had that dream, the discussion with Steve about the law of conservation of energy and the gig about the stripped-off Macintosh. The only invention is the “dummies choose Vista” line from Steve. (He would never have said such an acerbic thing ;-)