DesignInTech Report 13th year has made me rethink the original laws of simplicity in the context of this new era with this WIP (Work In Progress) as a set of new Laws of Design
Mike Fink made teaching English at @risd1877 a transformative experience for every single alum I have ever met. He believed that artists and designers needed to write to think both critically and imaginatively. Wow he was so right — given everything we see with multimodal AI today. By a fun coincidence I bumped into him in Florida today 🌞
Visited the Japanese American Museum in Portland today, and got a vocabulary lesson thru the various historical artifacts and writings there about a v recent past here in the US. The history of the rise of propaganda positioned against the Japanese Americans in the US was an effective tactic to alienate other people, not unlike similar tactics we know throughout history and the world.
The word “alienation” comes to mind, which is different than the state of being alien. It means making someone who might be really no different than you … into some “thing.”
When someone becomes some-thing, dehumanization is doing its unfortunate magic. Alienization is presto. Complete.
Why does history repeat itself? Perhaps thinking hard is not our second nature. I find that going to different places and exposing oneself to “alien” environments is the only thing to force, at least me, to switch to thinking hard. And to realize that my perception of that which is not my daily jam, is not necessarily so different. Not alien. Just me being too dumb to listen or to understand. Note to self.
I never expected coding to become such a design-y topic given its less than warm reception back in the 90s. But coding is where all the attention in this AI revolution has landed. Why? First and foremost because it is verifiable as either working or not working. Secondly, because code has high leverage — meaning a little bit of code can do a disproportionately large amount of work. Where is this going? It seems that everything is heading back to the CLI, so it feels like that classic “returning to basics” moments for the practical applications of computer science. #howtospeakmachine
