"Proposition 2: Programs are composed from memes. Code can be decomposed into individual memes."

This point of view is expressed eloquently in the white paper The Selfish Class which examines Object-Oriented design patterns not as structural, functional modules but rather as vernacular memes shared by collaborating stakeholders building fluid systems with few over-arching design rules.

This paper takes a code’s-eye view of software reuse and evolution. A code-level artifact must be able to attract programmers in order to survive and flourish. The paper addresses the question of what an object might do to encourage programmers to (re-)use it, as opposed to using some other object, or building new ones.