# Computers can be understood

DevFeed: [Computers can be understood](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/computers-can-be-understood-21945.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://blog.nelhage.com/post/computers-can-be-understood/>)

Author: Nelson Elhage

Published: 2020-02-16T20:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Nelson Elhage](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/nelson-elhage.md>)

Topics: [Software](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software.md>), [systems](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/systems.md>), [coding](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/coding.md>)

Tags: [abstraction](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/abstraction.md>), [architecture](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/architecture.md>), [browser](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/browser.md>), [compilers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/compilers.md>), [complexity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/complexity.md>), [concepts](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/concepts.md>), [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cpu.md>), [exploration](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/exploration.md>), [hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hardware.md>), [javascript](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/javascript.md>), [kernel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/kernel.md>), [learning](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/learning.md>), [software](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software.md>), [systems](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/systems.md>)

## AI overview

The author describes a mindset centered on the belief that computers and software systems can be understood through determined exploration and learning. Although modern systems are highly complex and layered, each layer can be understood at an appropriate level of abstraction, with deeper investigation possible when needed.

## Source excerpt

Introduction This post attempts to describe a mindset I've come to realize I bring to essentially all of my work with software. I attempt to articulate this mindset, some of its implications and strengths, and some of the ways in which it's lead me astray. Software can be understood I approach software with a deep-seated belief that computers and software systems can be understood. This belief is, for me, not some abstruse theoretical assertion, but a deeply felt belief that essentially any question I might care to ask (about computers) has a comprehensible answer which is accessible with determined exploration and learning.