Welcome to class An Essay by Bill Tozier vaguery.com I differ from almost all your previous instructors in three ways: First, I acknowledge that this is true, whereas they have for the most part lied to you (and themselves) and declared you competent, even though they’ve had to re-train you from scratch in every damned class. Second, unlike them I intend to do something about it. And, third, in order to do something about it, I will let you—no, make you—cheat. teaching
That which requires caring Today's real world of technology is characterized by the dominance of prescriptive technologies. The temptation to design more or less everything according to prescriptive and broken-up technologies is so strong that it is even applied to those tasks that should be conducted in a holistic way. Any tasks that require caring, whether for people or nature, any tasks that require immediate feedback and adjustment, are best done holistically. Such tasks cannot be planed, coordinated, and controlled the way prescriptive tasks must be. Prescriptive technologies eliminate the occasions for decision-making and judgment in general and especially for the making of principled decisions. Any goal of the technology is incorporated a priori in the design and is not negotiable. Ursula M. Franklin, The Real World of Technology Holistic and prescriptive technologiesThe Nature and Art of WorkmanshipThe Nature and Aesthetics of Design agilesoftwareprocess