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A lack of constraints mixed with a lack of real benefits. Late-stage iPhoneOS was magical because of the constraints people were working with. If you tell a d
by kick 7y ago
A lack of constraints mixed with a lack of real benefits.
Late-stage iPhoneOS was magical because of the constraints people were working with.
If you tell a developer, "Hey! Here's hardware with effectively no possible limits," they'll never write anything of value for it. A text editor and a way to do something you're already doing 5% faster.
If you tell a developer, "Hey! Here's hardware that's extremely slow and limited by today's standards, make something magical," they'll move the sun and stars to get you something that'll wow you.
Early-stage iOS was magical because of the new frontier offered; the constraints had mostly disappeared by then, but the ground was new and it presented what was effectively a new way to interface with the machine.
- hyperpallium 7y agoTrue, constraints promote creativity, the form of a sonnet or the rules of a fictional world or 8 bit graphics. But in this particular case, they used the new strengths of the device that enabled things not possible before (removing constraints), yet thought their idea might be too much for it (hence the prototype), and their later idea was too much for it (needed a bigger screen). So their ideas didn't benefit from the constraints. An upcoming test of your hypothesis is the PS5 100x SSD. Will it promote or stifle creativity? The sense of the "magical" is the newness. Miracles, when commonplace, become commonplace. (Though I am still in awe at billion/sec pocket electro-computers... OTOH no one else is, it's just a cheap phone).