Tim Hastings - NonHostile (because there's no need)

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The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is a quantum mechanics law that states that the more certain you are of a particle's position the less certain you can be about its speed and direction. Vice versa, the more certain you are about a particle's speed and direction, the less certain you can be about its position. In other words, even in quantum mechanics, you cannot have your cake and eat it.

During a meeting today, my nerdier colleagues and I came to the conclusion that this law also effects our current software project (after I falsely likened the situation to Schrödinger's Cat). The more certain we are of our deadline, the less certain we can be about what will get delivered. Inversely, if we want certainty about what we will deliver, we lose certainty about when we can have it.



1 comment, Pensive, Wednesday, August 17, 2005 22:49

Timeline Navigation for Pensive posts
What will your legacy be? (made 65 weeks later)
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and Software Projects (this post, made Wednesday, August 17, 2005 22:49)
Computing Concepts and That Do Not Transfer to Real Life (made 7 weeks earlier)


Comments
Nice Tim!

I took a look at that wikipedia article about HUP but couldn't really work out what it was banging on about.

I did, however, draw some small pleasure from the fact that some other bloke wanted to call it something else (the indeterminacy principle or whatever). It seems fitting that the creators of an uncertainty principle couldn't make up their minds what to call it.

Mnph.

Mnph.

Posted by: John on Monday, August 22, 2005 04:56

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