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Two things fascinated me about the article: 1) the inability of computers to model his thought process and 2) the experience of thinking deeply. Computers are
by timtadh 16y ago
Two things fascinated me about the article: 1) the inability of computers to model his thought process and 2) the experience of thinking deeply.
Computers are great writing aids but I am continuously frustrated by them for textual research purposes. They cannot model what occurs when I use pencil, paper, and write in the margins. The experience of Kimbro (the man in the article) reminded me a bit of Ted Nelson with his book Computer Lib. Ted couldn't write the book using a computer because it wasn't possible for computers at that time to layout such a complex book. I think this article raises similar issues.
Second, thinking deeply is a challenging exercise which is often ignored for more pressing concerns. Thinking, writing, teaching, and asking questions are the basis of learning. Reading and listening can only take you so far. I often find I do not truly understand something until I can either write about it or teach it. For algorithms I experience this most acutely: I never understand them until I have implemented them.
- stevejohnson 16y agoI think that Ted Nelson's complaints about computerized layout processes are not quite relevant to Kimbro's situation. While it is true that Nelson could not effectively lay out Computer Lib digitally, it was more a problem of the layout systems' inability to support efficient editing of complex layouts and content rather than the computer's inability to capture his thought process, which was probably kept in separate notes. I haven't seen a good solution to the layout problem either, though my experience is limited to TeX and word processing applications.