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What Is Entropy?

(jasonfantl.com)
287 points jfantl | 1 comments | 14 Apr 25 18:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.232s | source
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alganet ◴[14 Apr 25 19:15 UTC] No.43685038[source]▶
Nowadays, it seems to be a buzzword to confuse people.

We IT folk should find another word for disorder that increases over time, specially when that disorder has human factors (number of contributors, number of users, etc). It clearly cannot be treated in the same way as in chemistry.

replies(2): >>43685135 #>>43686856 #
1. petsfed ◴[14 Apr 25 22:12 UTC] No.43686856[source]▶
When I use it in an IT (or honestly, any non-physics or non-physics) context, I typically mean "how many different ways can we do it with the same effective outcome?".

To whit, "contract entropy": how many different ways can a contractor technically fulfill the terms of the contract, and thus get paid? If your contract has high entropy, then there's a high probability that you'll pay your contractor to not actually achieve what you wanted.