<!-- buttondown-editor-mode: plaintext --><h3 style="text-align:center;">by <a href="https://ideolalia.com/">Zach Tellman</a></h3> For the past few years, I've been working on a book about software design. Its thesis is fairly simple: > Software development can be reduced to a single, iterative action. Almost everything we do in the course of a day — the pull requests, the meetings, the whiteboard diagrams, the hallway conversations — is an explanation. Our job is to explain, over and over, the meaning of our software: what it is, and what we expect it to become. In this newsletter, I'll be sharing some excerpts from my still-incomplete manuscript. I'll also share some tangential thoughts that didn't make the cut. Topics will include: * practical definitions for simplicity and complexity * names and metaphors * the history of software design * language models as software developers, and vice-versa If any of this sounds interesting, you should check out the [introductory post](https://explaining.software/archive/a-brief-introduction/) and subscribe.