I have been reading – at a very shallow level – about category theory (wiki), and thinking about its applicability to software and system design for data engineering. This post is a loose collection of thoughts on the subject, and a manifesto for employing a more rigorous language when building such systems …

What is a variational principle?

A variational principle is a mathematical or physical law expressed in terms of maximising or minimising a certain quantity. The simplest example was known to ancient Egyptian builders and surveyers: a taut rope stretched between two points takes the shape that minimises its length. This …