Pattern Recognition
Seeing a familiar problem, and checking whether the forces match.
4 to work through
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advanced
An experienced architect recognises a familiar pattern and proposes the solution that worked before. What are the risks, and how are they managed?
2 min answer -
advanced
An interviewer asks which architectural analogy you reach for too often. Assume you genuinely do not know the answer. How would you find it from your own written record, and what would you do with the finding?
3 min answer -
advanced
Discord's Read States service was fast most of the time but showed latency spikes every two minutes. The pattern looked familiar to anyone who has seen a service under load. The cause published in 2020 was Go's garbage collector scanning a large LRU cache. What does this teach about pattern recognition, and which check would have got there faster?
3 min answer -
advanced Multiple choice
Pattern recognition is what makes an experienced architect fast. What is its characteristic failure and how do you guard against it?
2 min answer
3 terms in this topic
False Analogy
Applying a pattern learned in one context to a superficially similar situation whose relevant properties differ.
practicePattern Inventory Audit
Counting which prior cases you argued from across your own last twenty written decisions, to find the analogy you apply too often before it costs a d…
practicePattern Recognition
Recognising that a new problem is an instance of a known one — the main source of an experienced architect's speed, and of their characteristic errors.
Neighbouring topics
Meta-Skills
General material on how architects think and work.
Systems Thinking
Interactions and feedback loops rather than isolated components.
Trade-off Analysis
Making costs explicit and comparable rather than asserting a preference.
First-Principles Reasoning
Reducing to physics, mathematics and economics, then reasoning up.
Failure Thinking
Asking of every box and arrow how it fails and how you would know.
Constraint Thinking
Designing for the budget, skills and regulations that actually exist.
Pragmatism
The simplest architecture that meets the requirements usually wins.
Judgement Under Uncertainty
Choosing the best worst case when information is missing.
Business Understanding
Connecting a design to the outcome that pays for it.
Influence Without Authority
Getting decisions adopted when you cannot mandate them.
Mentoring
Growing architectural judgement in other people.
Continuous Learning
Staying current without chasing every new thing.
Estimation
Sizing work and cost honestly, with the uncertainty stated.
Prioritisation
Choosing what not to do, and defending it.
Research & Evaluation
Assessing a technology quickly without adopting it by accident.
Handling Ambiguity
Making progress when the requirements are not yet knowable.
Technical Leadership
Setting direction and carrying accountability without a team reporting to you.
Ethics in Architecture
Privacy, accessibility, sustainability and the consequences of a design.
Career Development
Growing from senior engineer to architect and beyond.