This is a glossary of terms as used in this essay. These do not necessarily have a standardized meaning to other people. Eric S. Raymond has compiled a massive and informative glossary[HackerDict] that rather surprisingly can pleasurably be read cover-to-cover once you can appreciate a fraction of it.

Slang for unknown-unknown. Problems that cannot presently even be conceptualized that will steal time away from the project and wreck the schedule.

The person or entity that gives you tasks. In some cases this may be the public at large.

The insertion of statements into a program on a strictly temporary basis that output information about the execution of the program for the purpose of debugging.

The practice of writing a program so that it can produce a configurable output log describing its execution.

A technique of top-down design and, importantly, of debugging that is the subdivision of a problem or a mystery into progressively smaller problems or mysteries.

Illusionary and often deceptive promises of software that is not yet for sale and, as often as not, will never materialize into anything solid.

The person who sets your tasks. In some cases, the user is the boss.

The people with whom you share loyalty to a common goal.

Big improvements that cost little.

The initiator of projects.

Objects that are no longer needed that hold memory.

A group of people organized for making money.

A group of people organized for making money.

A group of people you share cultural affinity and loyalty with.

The effect of being unable to find information you need because it is buried in too much other, less interesting information.

Actually time as measured by a clock on a wall, as opposed to CPU time.

The most important limitation in the performance of a system. A constriction that limits performance.

A unique piece of information from which all cached copies are derived that serves as the official definition of that data.

Memory can be said to be heap allocated whenever the mechanism for freeing it is complicated.

Allocated memory that no longer has any useful meaning.

A system for recycling garbage.

The unwanted collection of references to objects that prevents garbage collection (or a bug in the garbage collector or memory management system!) that causes the program to gradually increase its memory demands over time.

A style of programming emphasizing communication with the customer and automated testing.

To run out of a specific resource causing performance to degrade sharply rather than gradually.

Producing a feature before it is really known if that feature will be useful.

A design principle that seeks to keep things independent and decoupled by using interfaces that expose as little information as possible.

An programming style emphasizing the the management of state inside objects.

A language designed primarily for standardization rather than execution.

A loose, informal style of making diagrams consisting of boxes and arrows drawn between those boxes to show the relationships. This contrast with formal diagram methodologies, such as UML.

A language so popular as to be a de facto standard for its field, as French was for international diplomacy at one time.

An adjective describing a choice between spending money for software or writing it your self.

Work that requires little creativity and entails little risk. Mere work can be estimated easily.

A synonym for programming language that emphasizes the mathematical nature of programming language and their relative simplicity compared to natural languages.

A document meant to be the starting point of a technical discussion. A strawman may lead to a stickman, tinman, woodman, ironman, etc.

An informative document that is often meant to explain or sell a product or idea to an audience different than the programmers of that product or idea.

- [How to Conduct Experiments](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/12-How to Conduct Experiments.md)

4. [Glossary](GLOSSARY.md)

* [Beginner](1-Beginner/README.md)

* Personal Skills

* [Learn to Debug](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/01-Learn To Debug.md)

* [How to Debug by Splitting the Problem Space](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/02-How to Debug by Splitting the Problem Space.md)

* [How to Remove an Error](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/03-How to Remove an Error.md)

* [How to Debug Using a Log](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/04-How to Debug Using a Log.md)

* [How to Understand Performance Problems](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/05-How to Understand Performance Problems.md)

* [How to Fix Performance Problems](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/06-How to Fix Performance Problems.md)

* [How to Optimize Loops](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/07-How to Optimize Loops.md)

* [How to Deal with I/O Expense](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/08-How to Deal with IO Expense.md)

* [How to Manage Memory](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/09-How to Manage Memory.md)

* [How to Deal with Intermittent Bugs](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/10-How to Deal with Intermittent Bugs.md)

* [How to Learn Design Skills](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/11-How to Learn Design Skills.md)

* [How to Conduct Experiments](1-Beginner/Personal-Skills/12-How to Conduct Experiments.md)

* Team Skills

* [Why Estimation is Important](1-Beginner/Team-Skills/01-Why Estimation is Important.md)

* [How to Estimate Programming Time](1-Beginner/Team-Skills/02-How to Estimate Programming Time.md)

* [How to Find Out Information](1-Beginner/Team-Skills/03-How to Find Out Information.md)

* [How to Utilize People as Information Sources](1-Beginner/Team-Skills/04-How to Utilize People as Information Sources.md)

* [How to Document Wisely](1-Beginner/Team-Skills/05-How to Document Wisely.md)

* [How to Work with Poor Code](1-Beginner/Team-Skills/06-How to Work with Poor Code.md)

* [How to Use Source Code Control](1-Beginner/Team-Skills/07-How to Use Source Code Control.md)

* [How to Unit Test](1-Beginner/Team-Skills/08-How to Unit Test.md)

* [Take Breaks when Stumped](1-Beginner/Team-Skills/09-Take Breaks when Stumped.md)

* [How to Recognize When to Go Home](1-Beginner/Team-Skills/10-How to Recognize When to Go Home.md)

* [How to Deal with Difficult People](1-Beginner/Team-Skills/11-How to Deal with Difficult People.md)

* [Intermediate](2-Intermediate/README.md)

* Personal Skills

* [How to Stay Motivated](2-Intermediate/Personal-Skills/01-How to Stay Motivated.md)

* [How to be Widely Trusted](2-Intermediate/Personal-Skills/02-How to be Widely Trusted.md)

* [How to Tradeoff Time vs. Space](2-Intermediate/Personal-Skills/03-How to Tradeoff Time vs Space.md)

* [How to Stress Test](2-Intermediate/Personal-Skills/04-How to Stress Test.md)

* [How to Balance Brevity and Abstraction](2-Intermediate/Personal-Skills/05-How to Balance Brevity and Abstraction.md)

* [How to Learn New Skills](2-Intermediate/Personal-Skills/06-How to Learn New Skills.md)

* [Learn to Type](2-Intermediate/Personal-Skills/07-Learn to Type.md)

* [How to Do Integration Testing](2-Intermediate/Personal-Skills/08-How to Do Integration Testing.md)

* [Communication Languages](2-Intermediate/Personal-Skills/09-Communication Languages.md)

* [Heavy Tools](2-Intermediate/Personal-Skills/10-Heavy Tools.md)

* [How to analyze data](2-Intermediate/Personal-Skills/11-How to analyze data.md)

* Team Skills

* [How to Manage Development Time](2-Intermediate/Team-Skills/01-How to Manage Development Time.md)

* [How to Manage Third-Party Software Risks](2-Intermediate/Team-Skills/02-How to Manage Third-Party Software Risks.md)

* [How to Manage Consultants](2-Intermediate/Team-Skills/03-How to Manage Consultants.md)

* [How to Communicate the Right Amount](2-Intermediate/Team-Skills/04-How to Communicate the Right Amount.md)

* [How to Disagree Honestly and Get Away with It](2-Intermediate/Team-Skills/05-How to Disagree Honestly and Get Away with It.md)

* Judgment

* [How to Tradeoff Quality Against Development Time](2-Intermediate/Judgment/01-How to Tradeoff Quality Against Development Time.md)

* [How to Manage Software System Dependence](2-Intermediate/Judgment/02-How to Manage Software System Dependence.md)

* [How to Decide if Software is Too Immature](2-Intermediate/Judgment/03-How to Decide if Software is Too Immature.md)

* [How to Make a Buy vs. Build Decision](2-Intermediate/Judgment/04-How to Make a Buy vs Build Decision.md)

* [How to Grow Professionally](2-Intermediate/Judgment/05-How to Grow Professionally.md)

* [How to Evaluate Interviewees](2-Intermediate/Judgment/06-How to Evaluate Interviewees.md)

* [How to Know When to Apply Fancy Computer Science](2-Intermediate/Judgment/07-How to Know When to Apply Fancy Computer Science.md)

* [How to Talk to Non-Engineers](2-Intermediate/Judgment/08-How to Talk to Non-Engineers.md)

* [Advanced](3-Advanced/README.md)

* Technological Judgment

* [How to Tell the Hard From the Impossible](3-Advanced/Technical-Judgment/01-How to Tell the Hard From the Impossible.md)

* [How to Utilize Embedded Languages](3-Advanced/Technical-Judgment/02-How to Utilize Embedded Languages.md)

* [Choosing Languages](3-Advanced/Technical-Judgment/03-Choosing Languages.md)

* Compromising Wisely

* [How to Fight Schedule Pressure](3-Advanced/Compromising-Wisely/01-How to Fight Schedule Pressure.md)

* [How to Understand the User](3-Advanced/Compromising-Wisely/02-How to Understand the User.md)

* [How to Get a Promotion](3-Advanced/Compromising-Wisely/03-How to Get a Promotion.md)

* Serving Your Team

* [How to Develop Talent](3-Advanced/Serving-Your-Team/01-How to Develop Talent.md)

* [How to Choose What to Work On](3-Advanced/Serving-Your-Team/02-How to Choose What to Work On.md)

* [How to Get the Most From Your Team-mates](3-Advanced/Serving-Your-Team/03-How to Get the Most From Your Teammates.md)

* [How to Divide Problems Up](3-Advanced/Serving-Your-Team/04-How to Divide Problems Up.md)

* [How to Handle Boring Tasks](3-Advanced/Serving-Your-Team/05-How to Handle Boring Tasks.md)

* [How to Gather Support for a Project](3-Advanced/Serving-Your-Team/06-How to Gather Support for a Project.md)

* [How to Grow a System](3-Advanced/Serving-Your-Team/07-How to Grow a System.md)

* [How to Communicate Well](3-Advanced/Serving-Your-Team/08-How to Communicate Well.md)

* [How to Tell People Things They Don't Want to Hear](3-Advanced/Serving-Your-Team/09-How to Tell People Things They Don't Want to Hear.md)

* [How to Deal with Managerial Myths](3-Advanced/Serving-Your-Team/10-How to Deal with Managerial Myths.md)

* [How to Deal with Organizational Chaos](3-Advanced/Serving-Your-Team/11-How to Deal with Organizational Chaos.md)

* [Appendix A * Bibliography/Websiteography](5-Bibliography.md)

* [Appendix B * History (As of January 2016)](6-History.md)

* [Appendix C * Contributions (As of January 2016)](7-Contributions.md)