"The Structure of Pattern Languages", by mathematician/architect Nikos A. Salingaros, offers a quick overview of the pattern idea. There's a neat riff on the interdependence of patterns in the electronic and physical worlds:


(If you feel like digging further into this connection, be sure to check out Marc Demarest's excellent Cities of Text, which is chock-full of parallels between human settlements and intranets.)

I liked the part towards the end called "Stylistic rules and the replication of viruses", where Salingaros describes how arbitrary rules sometimes drive the widespread adoption of superficial features for no good reason. I see a connection here to Clay's ideas on process as an embedded reaction to prior stupidity. and to Joel Spolsky's "Talent Doesn't Scale" argument. Successful recipes get replicated out of the context in which they were relevant; the outcome is often less than ideal.

[found via the social_software channel]