Whatever you think of the idea, I think the reasoning here is interesting and instructive. 1. Start by questioning a long held assumption ("Do we need modules?

Whatever you think of the idea, I think the reasoning here is interesting and instructive. 1. Start by questioning a long held assumption ("Do we need modules? Why? Is it because we stored functions in files?" Etc...) 2. Consider alternatives / what ifs. ("What if we used a database instead of files?") 3. Think through implications of the alternatives ("How would we identify functions?") IMHO, this is a powerful technique for generating new ideas. Step 4, not explicitly performed here, might be to take ideas generated from steps 2 & 3 and apply them to other domains. ("Ok, perhaps a database of functions wouldn't be great for code, but perhaps it (or something similar) would be great for some other domain...")