To worship at the shrine of mathematics The new [physics-based] viewpoint is so potent that it has perhaps, caused too many metallurgists to forsake their partially intuitive knowledge of the nature of materials to worship at the shrine of mathematics, a trend reinforced by the curious human tendency to laud the more abstract. Matter versus Materials: A Historical View mathabstraction
Up and Down the Ladder of Abstraction An Essay by Bret Victor worrydream.com The most powerful way to gain insight into a system is by moving between levels of abstraction. Many designers do this instinctively. But it's easy to get stuck on the ground, experiencing concrete systems with no higher-level view. It's also easy to get stuck in the clouds, working entirely with abstract equations or aggregate statistics. This interactive essay presents the ladder of abstraction, a technique for thinking explicitly about these levels, so a designer can move among them consciously and confidently. From a roving viewpoint abstractionunderstandinginteraction
The Ladder of Abstraction An Essay by Bret Victor worrydream.com Collaborative Information Architecture at Scale informationthinkingcommunicationabstraction
AI-driven "Design"? An Article by Jorge Arango jarango.com Like a programming language interpreter, GPT-3 translates the designer’s intent from a language they’re already familiar with (English) to one they need to learn (Figma’s information architecture, as manifested in its UI.) This can be easier for a new/busy designer, much like Python is easier and faster to work with than assembly language. But that’s not “designing” — at least not any more than compiling Python code is “programming.” In both cases, all the system does is translate human intent into a lower level of abstraction. Sure, the process saves time — but the key is getting the intent part right. I’ll be convinced the system is “designing” when it can produce a meaningful output to a directive like “change the product page’s layout to increase conversions.” aidesignintentabstraction
barnsworthburning.net A Website by Nick Trombley barnsworthburning.net What this site isColophonContact meShortlist of interesting spacesBehind the scenes Five barns worth burningExtract (n)Kicks Condor: barnsworthburningNodal pointsMonoskop collectionsnotetakingconnection
What this site is A kind of commonplace book. A kind of digital garden. A kind of Zettelkasten. The front end to a brain. Part research, part dissertation, part art project. A kind of essay, in the sense that it is an attempt. ...but at what? What is a commonplace?A Brief History of the Digital GardenZettelkastenare.naHighlighterThe Art of Looking SidewaysReading DesignEssayerGlaspMaintenance and Care gardens
Colophon airtable stores the majority of the content for the site. the front-end is written using svelte and its companion toolset, sveltekit. it is hosted as a digital ocean app. figma was used for some of the design – the rest was done in code (as I increasingly believe it should be). it is typeset with IBM plex sans Designing with code
Contact me You can reach me using this Airtable form – I would love to hear from you. I'm also on LinkedIn.
Shortlist of interesting spaces craftworkwalkingwwwnotetakingwordseuphonymelancholyzendarknessgardens