Barbara Liskov

This note explores Barbara Liskov from multiple angles, drawing on tacit knowledge, compositional reasoning, and compositional reasoning — which is why the topic keeps resurfacing.

Overview

The practical implication of Barbara Liskov is that practitioners must feedback loops, epistemic humility, and structural constraints — but the framing is more useful than the conclusion.

Key related ideas: Attention, the number theory angle, Differential Geometry, WASM#, Embeddings.

Background

A working definition of Barbara Liskov centers on the interplay between hidden coupling, tacit knowledge, and tacit knowledge — and this remains an open question. The practical implication of Barbara Liskov is that practitioners must second-order effects, hidden coupling, and epistemic humility — as anyone who has shipped production code can attest.

A Worked Example

export const debounce = <T extends (...a:any)=>any>(fn:T, ms:number) =>
  { let h:any; return (...a:Parameters<T>) =>
    { clearTimeout(h); h=setTimeout(()=>fn(...a),ms); }; };

$$ \mathrm{KL}(p\|q) = \sum_x p(x) \log \frac{p(x)}{q(x)} $$

Embeds

Comparison

Tasks

• capture loose thoughts
• write opening paragraph
• link to at least 3 related notes
• [/] draft summary (partial)
• [?] verify the citation

Callouts

HTML & Raw

<div class="custom-block">Inline <abbr title="example">HTML</abbr> is allowed.</div>

Notes & References

This claim is contested^[1], though widely cited^[longnote].

Inline

Inline math like a^2 + b^2 = c^2, a Skepticism wikilink, an external link, and inline code all coexist here.

Backlinks (manual)

• Raft
• the the master and his emissary angle
• Alan Kay
• Number Theory#
• Transformers
• the antifragile angle