“The middle man brings conceptual integrity to the system.”

—  Joe Armstrong

The How and Why of Fitting Things Together

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 8, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The middle man brings conceptual integrity to the system." by Joe Armstrong?
Joe Armstrong photo
Joe Armstrong 36
British computer scientist 1950–2019

Related quotes

John Updike photo

“There's a crystallization that goes on in a poem which the young man can bring off, but which the middle-aged man can't.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

As quoted in “When Writers Turn to Brave New Forms” by Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times (24 March 1986)

Bruce Lee photo

“The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a pattern of systems.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 3
Source: Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living

“The transition from integrable to non integrable systems is quiet interesting to observe.”

Ivar Ekeland (1944) French mathematician

Source: The Best of All Possible Worlds (2006), Chapter 4, From Computation To Geometry, p. 100.

“The universe of all things that exist may be understood as a universe of systems where a system is defined as any set of related and interacting elements. This concept is primitive and powerful and has been used increasingly over the last half-century to organize knowledge in virtually all domains of interest to investigators. As human inventions and social interactions grow more complex, general conceptual frameworks that integrate knowledge among different disciplines studying those emerging systems grow more important. Living systems theory (LST) instructs integrative research among biological and social sciences and related academic disciplines.”

James Grier Miller (1916–2002) biologist

G. A. Swanson and James Grier Miller (2013) " Living Systems Theory http://www.eolss.net/Sample-Chapters/C02/E6-46-01-03.pdf" in Systems Science and Cybernetics. Vol I.

“Up to Descartes' time, and particularly during the Middle Ages, it had always been agreed that philosophy consisted in a transposition of reality into conceptual terms”

Étienne Gilson (1884–1978) French historian and philosopher

Methodical Realism

Russell L. Ackoff photo

“Despite the importance of systems concepts and the attention that they have received and are receiving, we do not yet have a unified or integrated set (i. e., a system) of such concepts. Different terms are used to refer to the same thing and the same term is used to refer to different things. This state is aggravated by the fact that the literature of systems research is widely dispersed and is therefore difficult to track. Researchers in a wide variety of disciplines and interdisciplines are contributing to the conceptual development of the systems sciences but these contributions are not as interactive and additive as they might be.”

Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) Scientist

As cited in: Journal of systems management. Vol. 25, p. 39. Association for Systems Management, 1974.
1970s, Towards a System of Systems Concepts, 1971

Béla H. Bánáthy photo

“Systems philosophy brings forth a reorganization of ways of thinking. It creates a new worldview, a new paradigm of perception and explanation, which is manifested in integration, holistic thinking, purpose-seeking, mutual causality, and process-focused inquiry.”

Béla H. Bánáthy (1919–2003) Hungarian linguist and systems scientist

Source: Systems Design of Education (1991), p. 31-32

“(a) There is a general tendency towards integration in the various sciences, natural and social. (b) Such integration seems to be centered in a general theory of systems. (c) Such theory may be an important means of aiming at exact theory in the nonphysical fields of science. (d) Developing unifying principles running "vertically" through the universe of the individual sciences, this theory brings us nearer to the goal of the unity of sciences. (e) This can lead to a much needed integration in scientific education.”

Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901–1972) austrian biologist and philosopher

Variant: Mayor aims of general theory:
(1) There is a general tendency toward integration in the various sciences, natural and social.
(2) Such integration seems to be centered in a general theory of systems.
(3) Such theory may be an important means for aiming at exact theory in the nonphysical fields of science.
(4) Developing unifying principles running "vertically" through the universe of the individual sciences, this theory brings us nearer the goal of the unity of science.
(5) This can lead to a much-needed integration in scientific education.
Source: 1950s, "General systems theory," 1956, p. 38, cited in: Alexander Laszlo and Stanley Krippner (1992) " Systems Theories: Their Origins, Foundations, and Development http://archive.syntonyquest.org/elcTree/resourcesPDFs/SystemsTheory.pdf" In: J.S. Jordan (Ed.), Systems Theories and A Priori Aspects of Perception. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 1998. Ch. 3, pp. 47-74.

“The most general form of systems theory is a set of logical or mathematical statements about all conceptual systems. A subset of this concerns all concrete systems. A subsubset concerns the very special and very important living systems, i. e., general living systems theory.”

James Grier Miller (1916–2002) biologist

Source: Living systems, 1978, p. 41

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“I mistrust all systematizers and avoid them. the will to a system is a lack of integrity.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Source: Twilight of the Idols

Related topics