Trond Hjorteland
@trond.hjorteland.com
A student of open sociotechnical systems at Capra with a ghoulish sense of post-punk and a geeky interest in science and systems thinking. He/him.
#DDDesign
#SocioTechnical
#SoftwareArchitecture
trond.hjorteland.com
#DDDesign
#SocioTechnical
#SoftwareArchitecture
trond.hjorteland.com
Pinned
Trond Hjorteland
@trond.hjorteland.com
· Jan 15
This concludes my thread on sociotechnical design principles. If you like to have a look, use this as an entry point, as the threading was a bit tricky to get right. Click on each one for more details. There are so many valuable insights here that we need when establishing sociotechnical systems
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
Robin Ince reveals to last night’s audience at a recording of Infinite Monkey Cage that the BBC has forced him to resign over his support of trans people
December 13, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Robin Ince reveals to last night’s audience at a recording of Infinite Monkey Cage that the BBC has forced him to resign over his support of trans people
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
Deeply disappointed to hear that the BBC has pushed out one of the most brilliant presenters in all of science communication for speaking with integrity and honor in support of human rights and dignity.
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
December 13, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Deeply disappointed to hear that the BBC has pushed out one of the most brilliant presenters in all of science communication for speaking with integrity and honor in support of human rights and dignity.
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
The best way to split a monolith is to first put that monolith aside. It might be counterintuitive, but before you decompose the legacy system, it is important to understand what the problem is that the system was built for.
domain-driven-transformation.com
domain-driven-transformation.com
Domain-Driven Transformation
domain-driven-transformation.com
December 9, 2025 at 9:34 AM
The best way to split a monolith is to first put that monolith aside. It might be counterintuitive, but before you decompose the legacy system, it is important to understand what the problem is that the system was built for.
domain-driven-transformation.com
domain-driven-transformation.com
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
'Drawing [isn’t] just for “artists” [..]. Think of it as a way of observing the world and learning' — Anne Quito
#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 1: Draw a Bicycle (and sketch a key mechanism) www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...
#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 1: Draw a Bicycle (and sketch a key mechanism) www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...
Advent(ure) in System Seeing
If you've done the "draw a bicycle" exercise before: skip step 1, and go to step 2, so that you can get to step 3 (it's new) and 4.
www.ruthmalan.com
December 1, 2025 at 6:24 AM
'Drawing [isn’t] just for “artists” [..]. Think of it as a way of observing the world and learning' — Anne Quito
#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 1: Draw a Bicycle (and sketch a key mechanism) www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...
#AdventOfSystemSeeing Day 1: Draw a Bicycle (and sketch a key mechanism) www.ruthmalan.com/Advent/2025/...
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
It has been quite an odyssey, but now it is finally here:
📣 📚 Domain-Driven Transformation: Modernize Legacy Systems and Mitigate Risk 📚 📣
In this book, Carola Lilienthal and I present our approach to transform architecturally eroded systems.
domain-driven-transformation.com
📣 📚 Domain-Driven Transformation: Modernize Legacy Systems and Mitigate Risk 📚 📣
In this book, Carola Lilienthal and I present our approach to transform architecturally eroded systems.
domain-driven-transformation.com
December 5, 2025 at 9:02 PM
It has been quite an odyssey, but now it is finally here:
📣 📚 Domain-Driven Transformation: Modernize Legacy Systems and Mitigate Risk 📚 📣
In this book, Carola Lilienthal and I present our approach to transform architecturally eroded systems.
domain-driven-transformation.com
📣 📚 Domain-Driven Transformation: Modernize Legacy Systems and Mitigate Risk 📚 📣
In this book, Carola Lilienthal and I present our approach to transform architecturally eroded systems.
domain-driven-transformation.com
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
Before you close your laptop for the weekend, take a quick look at what's waiting for you at NewCrafts next November: youtu.be/bQg1omXvmzY. Wishing you a rejuvenating break!
Trond Hjorteland - Thriving in complexity - NewCrafts 2023
NewCrafts 2023 - Organised by Aardling (https://aardling.eu/)https://ncrafts.iohttps://bsky.app/profile/newcrafts.bsky.socialhttps://www.linkedin.com/company...
youtu.be
December 5, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Before you close your laptop for the weekend, take a quick look at what's waiting for you at NewCrafts next November: youtu.be/bQg1omXvmzY. Wishing you a rejuvenating break!
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
The Structure of Wholes – Angyal (1939) stream.syscoi.com/2025/12/05/t...
The Structure of Wholes – Angyal (1939)
[I don’t usually share papers you can’t download without a paywall but you can get this – or a version of it, or the thinking behind it – in this book by the same author …
stream.syscoi.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:22 PM
The Structure of Wholes – Angyal (1939) stream.syscoi.com/2025/12/05/t...
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.
November 28, 2025 at 3:07 PM
I don’t know if anyone else notices or cares, but when I see a presentation in which the speaker uses obviously generated-AI images to illustrate their slides, it makes me immediately less confident in whatever other content they’re presenting.
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
Facilitating an environment where contribution is safe and encouraged doesn't just improve the product; it allows you to continuously refine your own mental models.
What specific techniques do you use to ensure the quietest experts in the room are heard during design sessions?
What specific techniques do you use to ensure the quietest experts in the room are heard during design sessions?
November 28, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Facilitating an environment where contribution is safe and encouraged doesn't just improve the product; it allows you to continuously refine your own mental models.
What specific techniques do you use to ensure the quietest experts in the room are heard during design sessions?
What specific techniques do you use to ensure the quietest experts in the room are heard during design sessions?
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
The art and skills for delivering software in much more smaller incremental steps were lost with the global adoption of Pull Requests.
November 27, 2025 at 6:50 PM
The art and skills for delivering software in much more smaller incremental steps were lost with the global adoption of Pull Requests.
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
The biggest threat to your software architecture isn't always essential and technical complexity. Often, it’s "implicit ranking"—the hidden hierarchy that convinces smart people to stay silent. ...
Home - Collaborative Software Design
Collaborative Software Design: How to facilitate domain modeling decisions is a practical guide to conducting effective software design sessions that involve all business and technical stakeholders.
collaborative-software-design.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:34 AM
The biggest threat to your software architecture isn't always essential and technical complexity. Often, it’s "implicit ranking"—the hidden hierarchy that convinces smart people to stay silent. ...
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
The future of software development is software developers.
November 24, 2025 at 7:25 PM
The future of software development is software developers.
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
November 21, 2025 at 12:49 PM
It’s widely known (and, I think, pretty uncontroversial) that learning requires effort — specifically, if you don’t have to work at getting the knowledge, it won’t stick.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Even if an LLM could be trusted to give you correct information 100% of the time, it would be an inferior method of learning it.
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
Swedish writer Fritiof Nilsson Piraten’s gravestone inscription says: ‘Here below are the ashes of a man who had the habit of putting everything off until tomorrow. But in his last days he improved, and did actually die on 31 January 1972’. (📷: jorchr)
November 19, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Swedish writer Fritiof Nilsson Piraten’s gravestone inscription says: ‘Here below are the ashes of a man who had the habit of putting everything off until tomorrow. But in his last days he improved, and did actually die on 31 January 1972’. (📷: jorchr)
This is a fantastic talk by Kent Beck. And so important. What he is saying here, using his perspective from Extreme Programming (XP), basically sums up all my talks from the last few years.
#XP #Sociotechnical #OpenSystems
#XP #Sociotechnical #OpenSystems
The Forest & The Desert Are Parallel Universes • Kent Beck • GOTO 2025
YouTube video by GOTO Conferences
www.youtube.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:58 PM
This is a fantastic talk by Kent Beck. And so important. What he is saying here, using his perspective from Extreme Programming (XP), basically sums up all my talks from the last few years.
#XP #Sociotechnical #OpenSystems
#XP #Sociotechnical #OpenSystems
sessionize.com/s/trond-hjor...
November 18, 2025 at 4:42 PM
sessionize.com/s/trond-hjor...
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
If you ask an AI chatbot to name a random number between 1 and 10, 90% of the time it responds with 7.
November 17, 2025 at 10:19 AM
If you ask an AI chatbot to name a random number between 1 and 10, 90% of the time it responds with 7.
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
But the real challenge comes when tackling the core of the legacy, especially the data, that has many dependencies and is hard to untangle.
And picking too many quick wins can increase overall complexity that makes untangling the core even harder.
2/4
And picking too many quick wins can increase overall complexity that makes untangling the core even harder.
2/4
November 15, 2025 at 8:53 AM
But the real challenge comes when tackling the core of the legacy, especially the data, that has many dependencies and is hard to untangle.
And picking too many quick wins can increase overall complexity that makes untangling the core even harder.
2/4
And picking too many quick wins can increase overall complexity that makes untangling the core even harder.
2/4
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
Do we need software architects? A question that always sparks debate. We held an open discussion on the role, its anti-patterns, and expectations. Missed it? You can rewatch the session or listen to the podcast on our website.
buff.ly/fCTti5d
buff.ly/fCTti5d
Do we need software architects?
Do Software architects have a bad name? Why? What are your expectations, what anti-patterns you experience? What are you thankful for from your architects? Should you have a software architect in the…
buff.ly
November 13, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Do we need software architects? A question that always sparks debate. We held an open discussion on the role, its anti-patterns, and expectations. Missed it? You can rewatch the session or listen to the podcast on our website.
buff.ly/fCTti5d
buff.ly/fCTti5d
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
If you’re changing the org chart, don’t design it behind closed doors and introduce it in a top-down manner—that’s a terrible way to foster aligned autonomy as it robs people of their sense of autonomy. Instead, the people affected by the redesign exercise should be involved as much as possible.
November 12, 2025 at 2:03 PM
If you’re changing the org chart, don’t design it behind closed doors and introduce it in a top-down manner—that’s a terrible way to foster aligned autonomy as it robs people of their sense of autonomy. Instead, the people affected by the redesign exercise should be involved as much as possible.
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
“The hardest part (of deciding) is framing the problem. It is also the part we spend the least amount of time on.”
This is _so_ true.
👏🏻 @gienverschatse.com closing #NewCrafts #Paris 2025.
This is _so_ true.
👏🏻 @gienverschatse.com closing #NewCrafts #Paris 2025.
November 6, 2025 at 4:27 PM
“The hardest part (of deciding) is framing the problem. It is also the part we spend the least amount of time on.”
This is _so_ true.
👏🏻 @gienverschatse.com closing #NewCrafts #Paris 2025.
This is _so_ true.
👏🏻 @gienverschatse.com closing #NewCrafts #Paris 2025.
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
Hypothesis: Because "sociotechnical architecture" is necessary, but no way near sufficient? That sociotechnical is about the social being at least equally important as the technical. Conway is just a signal, an eye-opener to the real problem that is joint optimisation of the two.
November 6, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Hypothesis: Because "sociotechnical architecture" is necessary, but no way near sufficient? That sociotechnical is about the social being at least equally important as the technical. Conway is just a signal, an eye-opener to the real problem that is joint optimisation of the two.
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
“Anarchy doesn’t mean you can’t organise, but it should be done voluntary, functional, temporal and small”
November 6, 2025 at 11:31 AM
“Anarchy doesn’t mean you can’t organise, but it should be done voluntary, functional, temporal and small”
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
At @newcrafts.bsky.social watching @andrewhl.bsky.social talk about anarchy and how we can organise ourselves differently in our company instead of the hierarchy we have gotten so used to.
November 6, 2025 at 11:31 AM
At @newcrafts.bsky.social watching @andrewhl.bsky.social talk about anarchy and how we can organise ourselves differently in our company instead of the hierarchy we have gotten so used to.
Reposted by Trond Hjorteland
Really do think it is risky to use that model to implement our IT systems, an the other way around, that we limit our framing to what we can do in code. What we implement is a reductionistic version of it, a closed system. The model we create for understanding should encapsulate the complexity.
November 6, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Really do think it is risky to use that model to implement our IT systems, an the other way around, that we limit our framing to what we can do in code. What we implement is a reductionistic version of it, a closed system. The model we create for understanding should encapsulate the complexity.