When I discuss interfaces on this blog, I’m most often referring to software interfaces: intermediating mechanisms from our human intentions to computers and the knowledge within them. But the concept of a human interface extends far before it and beyond it. I’ve been trying to build myself a coherent mental framework for how to think about human interfaces to knowledge and tools in general, even beyond computers.| thesephist.com
I have a few friends who are in the midst of navigating very hazy idea spaces, guided by strong intuition and taste, but early enough in the process that very little is visible through the fog. Whenever I’m in this situation I feel a strange internal conflict. One side of me feels conviction in a direction of exploration, while the other part of me feels the risk of potential dead ends, afraid to go out on a limb and say I should put my full effort into pursuing where my hunch leads.| thesephist.com
Cross-posted from my Notion.| thesephist.com
When I get stuck on a really hard problem, whether it’s some impossible bug in my code or my sofa not fitting through my front door on moving day, I close my eyes and … think really hard. Somewhere behind my shut eyelids and confused eyeballs, things are happening. Electricity is flowing through the vat of brain-stuff and spindly wires that somehow make up my thought process, and for a few seconds, they just kind of do their thing. Until, if I’m lucky, an answer pops into my head a few ...| thesephist.com