Try Bravery

These are stories and essays about a simple idea: some things can’t be renamed. A roof either leaks or it doesn’t. A cake either has nuts in it or it doesn’t. A parrot is either resting or it’s dead, however beautiful the plumage.

Saying so isn't a question of cleverness. BUT it always requires bravery. The name you’re given comes with authority behind it: the shopkeeper, the board report, the dashboard that has been green for eleven quarters. Refusing that name means standing in the shop and not leaving until the parrot is acknowledged dead. Most people, most of the time, would rather go home.

The essays here are the thinking behind systems that make that refusal less lonely. Instead of one master record, let independent systems speak for themselves, so one witness isn’t standing alone. Instead of trusting a claim, trace where it came from and who stands behind it. Instead of letting “nothing” mean anything, say what kind of nothing it is: not known, not applicable, not yet, withheld. That is federation, attestation and typed nulls. None of them makes anyone braver. They make it easier to be right out loud.

Some pieces are philosophy. Some are about a village grandmother called Nona, who is no theologian but knows a dead fish when she smells one, and who, when it matters, goes round and knocks on the door. Both are making the same argument. Nona just makes it better.