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[Rich EPstein: The Abnormal Psychology of Programming]

Methinks friend Rich has too much time on his hands....or at least, on
the hands of one of him...

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Date:    Thu, 08 Nov 90 20:08:14 -0400 
From:    Rich EPstein <@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU:REPSTEIN@GWUVM>
To:      Spaf for Yucks? <spaf>
Subject: The Abnormal Psychology of Programming

I do not have my WASHINGTON POST with me right now, but I suppose
most of you have read about the rape case being tried in Oshkosh,
Wisconsin. THIS IS TRUE!

Basically, according to the POST, there is a woman in Oshkosh
who has 46 distinct personalities, including Susan and Jennifer,
and she is charging a man with raping Jennifer, her most
submissive and suggestible personality. According to my
recollection of what I read, the defendant asked Susan
out for a date, but then when he got Susan to the restaurant
he worked on getting Jennifer to emerge as the dominant
personality. Jennifer obliged. The defendant drove
Jennifer to a secluded park and the rest is history.

Actually, the case against the defendant is based upon the
law in Wisconsin which makes it illegal to have sexual
relations with a person with a mental disorder, which
according to R. D. Laing is nearly everyone. The case
boils down to whether the defendant knew about these
various personalities or not.  I think the jury will
have a tough time making up their minds about this one.

Since I am always looking out for new research topics,
it occurred to me that I might try to write a book
somewhat akin to Weinberg's classic, The Psychology
of Computer Programming. My book would be entitled:
The Abnormal Psychology of Computer Programming.
I think the main contribution of my book would be that
multiple personalities, far from being disfunctional,
can be quite useful in certain software engineering
contexts.

I am referring, of course, to the idea of a ONE PERSON
PROGRAMMING TEAM. It is well known that a heterogeneous
team, one with a diversity of personality types (task-
oriented, self-oriented, and interaction-oriented),
is more likely to succeed than a homogeneous team.
Obviously, if we could package a variety of personality
types into one programmer, we'd have a powerful, new
concept that could revolutionize software engineering.

Of course, there is the problem whether these
multiple personalities should be organized as a
hierarchical team or a democratic team. However,
I think one can make the case that a person with,
say 46, personalities, would probably do best
with a hierarchical team organization.  Also, someone
with multiple personalities and a MEGALOMANIA COMPLEX
could organize their personalities according to the
chief programmer concept.

In any event, it is remarkable how many wonderful
research ideas are often staring us right in the
face. The only problem is that I am of two minds
right now whether to submit this idea to a conference
or to first find myself a publisher.

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