Computer systems used to be weak, so we had to make their world simple and standardized. They now can handle almost endless complexity—but we still need to understand how to make the world simple, so we don’t risk burdening the majority of users with the needless complexity of the few. One way of doing this is to adopt Facebook’s approach of “Yes, No and It’s Complicated.”
Read the rest of the essay at ACM Ubiquity’s blog.
“We no longer think the world will be saved by politics and rock’n roll. We now believe it will be saved by the life of mind.” “…playing gracefully with ideas.”
Watch this. If nothing else, study Stephen Fry’s technique.
Unfortunately, I own a lawnmover. Oh well.
(There is a Q&A session as well, available as separate videos.)
If Norway marketed itself more effectively, they could suck the brightest and best students from the UK and America, improve their universities reputation and force the UK and US to rethink their education policies for the benefit of the people in all the countries concerned.
This from the excellent blog post “What caused you to move to Norway, Sir?” by Paul Beaumont.
I certainly think Norwegian universities could do just that. When it doesn’t happen, it is largely because of provincial thinking and lack of marketing acumen. This needs to change.
That is all.
Applied Abstractions 