Dear community, you may have read about Robert Pike in one place or another. As a programmer, he is known for his work on the Go programming language, for example. As an author, he has published various ideas. Among them, his “5 Rules of Programming,” which are highly recommended reading.
I’ve been fascinated by his rule number 5, in particular, for years. This rule is said to have originally been coined by Fred Brook, who wrote the book “The Mythical Man-Month.” I haven’t been able to verify that yet. Maybe I should finally read the book. It’s on my list, at least…
The rule essentially states the following: Data dominates. If you focus on the data and structure it correctly, the algorithms will largely emerge on their own.
I can confirm this after many years of work. During my computer science studies, I wasn’t aware of this due to a lack of experience, but the lecture “Algorithms and Data Structures” (then abbreviated to “ALDAST”) was enormously important. Algorithms and data structures belong together like glue. You just have to decide which to consider first. In this context, the data is the “what” and the algorithms are the “how.” So focus on the data.
This rule is also confirmed from another perspective. Data is incredibly sociable, because data generates even more data. Terms like “Big Data” and “Data Lake“, while almost anachronistic, further underscore the focus on data.
So, have fun focusing on data
Michael