a random walk

In some of the computational research I do, one often talks about taking a “random walk through the space.” This is to get a feel of how messy a design problem is, or how much things changed by making the same size small changes.To me (and probably no one else), there’s an interesting tie-in with music. I’ve been taking bass lessons again and working with a teacher on walking bass lines. In jazz the bass players have adopted this walking thing – taking small steps to transition between chords in a song. It takes some talent to choose notes that are not completely obvious and yet not completely random. One can’t be too interesting otherwise it’ll distract from the melodic, and not too boring otherwise the whole tune will suffer.

Looking at design and the decisions we make in design, I can see an analogy. In engineering, we don’t always want the most creative solution (especially if there’s no precedent that it’ll work or if you have to go to great lengths to make it by retooling your manufacturing), and we don’t want something to boring or predictable (else no one will buy it, and we won’t be truly innovative).

Don’t worry about me. This depresses me a little as well. I’d like to think we are always best with the crazy ideas even if it means no one else will understand :).