I just finished a book called Linked. It’s a book about network theory and covers a wide variety of topics very quickly. It’s not incredibly long but I found it very interesting just because of speculation I’ve done over the years.

Sometimes, I’ve wondered if the patterns I see in some subject translate (either by divine will or mathematics) into other subjects. For example, if the 80/20 rule applies in software, does it apply to business or biology or anything else? The author covers these kinds of things in a much more journalistic approach than my everyday speculation and casual daydreaming could. It was reinforcing in a way.

Towards the end of the book, the author has a diagram of a three-point triangle. He relates the node map to society and members of society as connectors and hubs. The chapter covered topics like infection and how certain hub-people will transmit disease faster than others. It’s a bit more complicated than how I’m summarizing but the diagram caught my attention none-the-less. The author started with a node and then added nodes recursively (whether he knew it or not). So I fired up the processing.org program and tried to draw what he had made but make it configurable with depth. Here’s the result, was fun.

The depth goes 1,2,4,8. After that it becomes a white mess.

int scale = 100;  // size of initial triangle
int w = 500;
int h = 500;

void setup()
{

  background(40);
  size(w,h);
  noStroke();
  smooth();
  noLoop();
}

void draw()
{
  drawHorseshit(w/2, h/2, 9, scale);
}

class tri {
  int ax;
  int ay;
  int bx;
  int by;
  int cx;
  int cy;
}

void drawHorseshit(int x, int y, int depth, int s)
{
  fill(140);
  stroke(255);

  stroke(255,5);
  line(0,y,w,y);  //horizontal line
  line(x,0,x,h);  //vertical line
  stroke(255);

  // interior lines
  tri outline = new tri();

  //center
  ellipse(x, y, s/4, s/4);

  //top
  ellipse(x, y-s, s/8, s/8);
  outline.ax = x;
  outline.ay = y-s;

  //right
  float ra = s * sin(60);
  float rb = s * cos(60);
  ellipse( (x-rb), (y-ra), s/8, s/8);
  outline.bx = (int)(x-rb);
  outline.by = (int)(y-ra);

  //left
  float la = s * sin(60);
  float lb = s * cos(60);
  ellipse( (x+lb), (y-la), s/8, s/8);
  outline.cx = (int)(x+lb);
  outline.cy = (int)(y-la);

  stroke(255,50);
  line(outline.ax, outline.ay, x,y);
  line(outline.bx, outline.by, x,y);
  line(outline.cx, outline.cy, x,y);
  stroke(255);

  if(depth > 1) {
    depth--;
    s = s/2;
    drawHorseshit(outline.ax, outline.ay, depth, s);
    drawHorseshit(outline.bx, outline.by, depth, s);
    drawHorseshit(outline.cx, outline.cy, depth, s);
  }

}