Reading 1: Boring Technology & Leaky Abstractions
Read the following two blog posts. After reading, you should answer the questions below in a paragraph or two, about 150-250 words, and then discuss the articles with your classmates in a shared Google Doc.
1. Read
Read the following two blog posts:
- Dan McKinley, “Choose Boring Technology” (2015)
- Joel Spolsky, “The Law of Leaky Abstractions” (2002)
2. Personal Response
Answer the following questions:
- Based on your experience so far, do you think these views hold up today? Why or why not?
- Do you agree or disagree with the views of these authors? Why or why not?
In your response, try to relate your views to any of the assignments you’ve done in CS169A, or if relevant other coursework at Berkeley, internships, or other work experiences you’ve had. Try to reference specific tools, technologies or experiences.
You should expect to write 1-2 paragraphs and about 150-250 words. We will mark submissions off which are significantly longer or significantly shorter, but we do not intend to precisely check word counts.
Please write your responses in a Google Doc, and share this document with
cs169@berkeley.edu as an editor.
Please declare any uses of AI or collaboration below your assignment.
These responses will be submitted to Gradescope, but not shared publicly.
3. Question, Quote, Comment, Response
In one of 3 Google Drive folders which has been shared with you (find your group by team number below), please add a comment to the shared document, one for each article. You should assume that about 35-40 others in the class will read your comments.
To add a comment, select the text, then right click and click the little “+” icon, or press Command-Option-M (on Mac) or Control-Alt-M (on Linux or Windows).
In your comment, you may pose a substantive question, quote from your personal writing, or respond to another student’s comment. Comments don’t necessarily have a minimum or maximum length, but should be meaningful. I.e., “I agree!” is not enough, but you need not write an entire paragraph.
You should leave one comment on each document in the shared folder.
Shared Folders
In each folder, click on the sub-folder Reading 1.
Please do not request access to other groups’ folders. We will not approve them.
4. What to Submit
Submit to the Gradescope assignment linked under Submission, worth 10 points. In your Gradescope submission you will include:
| # | Item | Points | Grading |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The URL to your Google Doc | 2 | 0 points for no or inaccessible submissions; 2 points for a Google Doc that cs169@berkeley.edu can access as an editor |
| 2 | A PDF upload of your personal response | 4 | Article 1: 0 / 1 / 2 points; Article 2: 0 / 1 / 2 points |
| 3 | A screenshot of your document comment from article 1, “Choose Boring Technology” | 2 | 0 / 1 / 2 points |
| 4 | A screenshot of your document comment from article 2, “The Law of Leaky Abstractions” | 2 | 0 / 1 / 2 points |
| 5 | Links to AI chats: an open-ended text box to share URLs of how you used AI | 0 | Not graded |
10 points total. For each item graded 0 / 1 / 2 points:
- 0 points for a missing or very low effort submission, or one which reads entirely as from a language model.
- 1 point for submissions which show marginal effort or thought, but for which not much time was spent.
- 2 points for submissions which attempt to fully answer the questions, and ideally are “unique” to you in some way.
AI Use Policy
This assignment follows the course AI Policy, which will be published on this site before it is needed. Until then, the rule from the Syllabus applies: you must be able to explain everything you submit.
You may not use AI to do any of the writing for you. You may not have AI think for you, nor should you ask it to summarize the articles. (They really only take 5-10 minutes to read.)
You may, however, use tools like Grammarly to proofread and you may ask AI tools to come up with examples, but be judicious. An AI tool does not know your life experiences. It is highly capable of generating text that looks good, but doesn’t hold up to closer scrutiny.
Please declare any uses of AI or collaboration below your personal response, and share links to any AI chats in the last question on Gradescope.
You are free, and encouraged, to discuss these articles with your classmates.