
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1957) [pdf] - joubert
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/books/introcyb.pdf
======
MistahKoala
A couple of years ago I tried, vainly, to make that PDF into a more friendly
format by splicing the pages so that they would form a PDF made of single
pages. No joy, unfortunately. I haven't attempted an epub of it yet.

~~~
e12e
With the help of[1] and some glue code[2]:

    
    
      if __name__ == "__main__":
          import argparse
          parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
              description=("Split up pdf from 2-up "
                           "to single page"))
          parser.add_argument("src", help="Source file")
          parser.add_argument("dst", help="Destination file")
          args = parser.parse_args()
          split_pages2(args.src, args.dst)
    

I produced a PDF[3] that appears to look ok at first glance (bit off on the
margins, perhaps?).

[1] [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13345593/split-each-
pdf-p...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13345593/split-each-pdf-page-in-
two)

[2]
[https://gist.github.com/ebe2445416ed8b683d93](https://gist.github.com/ebe2445416ed8b683d93)

[3] [https://e12e.github.io/files/introcyb-
split.pdf](https://e12e.github.io/files/introcyb-split.pdf)

~~~
MistahKoala
Oh, good effort! Looks much better than what I managed.

------
jgalt212
Great piece in New Yorker on this sort of stuff by Evgeny Morozov.

[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/planning-
machin...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/planning-machine)

------
amatic
Why is this relevant today?

~~~
TeMPOraL
Cybernetics, known better today as control theory, is a significant discipline
of math with _lots_ of valuable insight applicable to broad areas of sciences
and life. My favourite example - grokking the difference between open and
closed-loop systems will let you discover the simple idea behind agile
methodologies and how 90% of what's written about them is pure marketing
bullshit.

~~~
bordercases
Really, control theory helped you understand Agile? Please, do go on. I would
love to hear the specifics.

~~~
TeMPOraL
TL;DR: waterfall is an open-loop system. In order to control it (the direction
of your project, its results), you need to have a perfect model of system
internals _and_ know the input. Since you know neither, you simply can't
control it. Agile is a closed-loop system, it contains a feedback loop, which
lets you control the system even if you don't know the internals perfectly
(and with human beings, you'll never know).

This is the core insight, though I'm probably skipping things in this
description that you know implicitly when you've seen the math. The rest of
discussion about agile is either minutiae of tuning the feedback loop for best
results, or just marketing talk and bikeshedding.

