you are what you promise

You Are What You Promiseor

You’re Only As Good As Your Word

Who Am I

• Khushil Dep ( @khushil - www.daemondreams.co.uk )!

• Head of Engineering at Sphonic Ltd!

• CFEngine Expert user!

• Promise Theory evangelist!

• Father & Engineer

Existence• Composed of the longevity and depth of your life.

• Depth maybe thought of as the degree to which you contribution to and assimilate of learning provided by events.

• Constantly evolving and demands understanding.

• Most of successful existence demands effective collaboration.

Collaboration

• All human interaction is composed of either positive and negative collaboration, subject to the context and constraints of the interaction.

• Promises allow us to trust each other to converge autonomously on a desired outcome.

• Collaboration is the bitcoin of Life.

Grace

• Effective promises and evaluation allow for sympathetic existence.

• Grace defines a very human concept of both being autonomous and in concert with other entities around you.

• It fosters a greater appetite for effective collaboration in entries around you.

Promises

Promises are the currency of interaction between entities.!

Promises encapsulate desire, design, planning, execution and review for any given solution.!

Promises allow for TRUST and AUTONOMY.

A Simple Promise

I promise to have multiple states depending on my context and constraints.

The Universe• Quarks promise Protons and Neutrons.!

• Protons and Neutrons promise Atoms.!

• Atoms promise Molecules.!

• Molecules promise Orangelles.!

• Orangelles promise Cells.!

• Cells promise Tissue.!

• Tissue promises Organs.!

• Organs lead to Lizards.!

• Spock always wins.

Context & Constraint• Context maybe thought of as the state of the

environment the promiser occupies at any given moment.

• Constraint maybe thought of as the state of operational parameters which are influenced by the context and desired outcome at any given moment.

• A moment is a definable and arbitrary length of time made significant only by the requirements of a common desired outcome.

Desired Outcomes• To be effective, promises in the same context must have

the same appreciation of common desired outcomes.

• Declarative language is ideally suited to fully describing challenges and outcomes on the path to a solution.

• Be concise and small in your desired outcome as this will better facilitate understanding across participating promisers.

• Common understanding of desired outcomes better facilitate autonomic operation in entities.

AutonomyTo operate within a given context and constraints without the undue influence of imperative demands from external entities. To be able to adapt to alterations in context and constraints whilst maintaining the capacity for effective operation.

Why?

• Dynamic complexity is cajoled, never steered.

• Certainty is a misunderstanding of reality.

• Effective collaboration needs something more than probability due to our human nature.

• Effective operation requires a high level of trust.

Trust

An effective strategy and behaviour for

productive voluntary cooperation between autonomous entities.

In Search Of Certainty• Trust seeks to provide a degree of certainty.

• Certainty pacifies our fears about outcomes and implications in a dynamic and delicate reality.

• Certainty exists after the fact but never before.

• Outcomes are more or less probable till evaluated.

• All things are possible given the correct context and constraints.

Iteration• Effective operation relies on iteration and

incorporating feedback from each iteration to the next.

• Reality demands a level of orchestration of iterations between promisers within the same context.

• A common context does not imply a common set of constraints and it is important to establish a sympathy across constraints within the same context.

Convergent Behaviour• Non-trivial challenges are dynamic in composition and reactive

behaviour.

• Evaluation for a desired outcome may cause events which alter the subject of the promise under evaluation.

• These alterations will demand the promiser(s) mutate the promise and possibly evaluation strategy in order to arrive at the desired outcome.

• Good promises are self-contained engines which adapt to alterations of subjects without harming or unduly hindering other related promises.

• Empathic behaviour is the goal of common promises within any given context.

Hidden Orchestration

Normal Ordering

God

Queen

Country

Beer

Whiskey

Vodka

Tequila

meta

vars

defaults

classes

files

Further Reading• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Certainty-

science-information-infrastructure/dp/1492389161/ref=la_B001IXTSLU_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1390492291&sr=1-1

• http://research.iu.hio.no/promises.php

• www.daemondreams.co.uk

• www.cfengine.com

QUESTIONS