Keeping it All in Mind

[ Thanks to WobbleFall for this link. ]

"There is a limit to the number of items we can keep in short-term memory - 7 plus or minus 2.

"While not applicable to basic lists - where the reader doesn't simultaneously need to be aware of every item in the list - it is a powerful heuristic when applied to, for example, a software architecture layer. In this case a person trying to understand the architecture would benefit from awareness of all parts of the architecture at the level being studied, and in doing so finds the architecture more easily discoverable and transparent than if the layer were more finely partitioned."

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