invention
More easily asked than definitively answered
We feel it in our fingers
History tends to be charitable
The word invents itself
The Evolution of Useful Things
Stepping stones in possibility space
Ideas behind their time
Who Becomes an Inventor in America? The Importance of Exposure to Innovation
Age of Invention
The Right Tools for the Job
A representational tension
The teleology of tool-building
Urban form and grain
Software often feels inevitable
Software often feels inevitable because its backstory is often invisible. We click a download link, run an installer, and suddenly have a new tool to use. Yet this conceals years of human decisions, experiences, and constraints shaping software outcomes that are in no way pre-destined.