3 ms·

My favourite part is still the 'demo' of tying a brick to a pen to prove the power of augmentation via de-augmentation

hinkley 6y ago
Something I can never quite explain to people is that when I can navigate the information faster, I can see deeper problems. Every time someone decided that this is good enough and that I “should be able to figure it out, what’s the big deal?” I am stymied. Which would sound like someone whining about how the bigger kids are running too fast, but when I finally get fed up and fix the code, half the time I’m the one who spots the underlying problem that makes a big difference. Accidental complexity kills invention. Every time we make a better tool, we reduce the accidental complexity. If we ever figure out how to draw or write directly from the motor cortex, no hands involved, that will be a new Enlightenment.
- tux3 6y ago
  I'm very sympathetic to this, but I think you go too far with the conclusion! If we did figure out drawing or writing without hands, I think that would be a noticeable, but still small improvement. Much like with coding, the insight/information /s rate is very rarely keyboard limited. A good programmer switching to Vim may help them a bit, and it can be a strong enough effect that lots of people will want to switch to better tools like Vim But I doubt there's room enough in there to extract a whole new enlightenment from :)
  - nmfisher 6y ago
    Problem solving isn't keyboard-limited, but actually creating the solution definitely is. Once I know what code needs to be written, I still need hours to actually type the damn thing out (not to mention the constant typos, deletions, reformatting, and so on). One of my loftier startup ideas is a Neuralink-PC interface that projects the code in your head to code on a screen. I really hope I see it in my lifetime.
    - tux3 6y ago
      Agree, but I find that I spend more hours problem solving than creating. But that maybe says more about me than about anything else! I hope so too, please don't let me stop you! :)
  - hinkley 6y ago
    I don't actually have to draw pictures in my mind. It's more akin to remembering in the dark where the coffee table is so I don't bark my shin. But I know that other people do not work this way, so 'draw myself a picture' is still a gating condition on writing the code.

Something I can never quite explain to people is that when I can navigate the information faster, I can see deeper problems. Every time someone decided that this is good enough and that I “should be able to figure it out, what’s the big deal?” I am stymied. Which would sound like someone whining about how the bigger kids are running too fast, but when I finally get fed up and fix the code, half the time I’m the one who spots the underlying problem that makes a big difference. Accidental complexity kills invention. Every time we make a better tool, we reduce the accidental complexity. If we ever figure out how to draw or write directly from the motor cortex, no hands involved, that will be a new Enlightenment.

tux3 6y ago
I'm very sympathetic to this, but I think you go too far with the conclusion! If we did figure out drawing or writing without hands, I think that would be a noticeable, but still small improvement. Much like with coding, the insight/information /s rate is very rarely keyboard limited. A good programmer switching to Vim may help them a bit, and it can be a strong enough effect that lots of people will want to switch to better tools like Vim But I doubt there's room enough in there to extract a whole new enlightenment from :)
- nmfisher 6y ago
  Problem solving isn't keyboard-limited, but actually creating the solution definitely is. Once I know what code needs to be written, I still need hours to actually type the damn thing out (not to mention the constant typos, deletions, reformatting, and so on). One of my loftier startup ideas is a Neuralink-PC interface that projects the code in your head to code on a screen. I really hope I see it in my lifetime.
  - tux3 6y ago
    Agree, but I find that I spend more hours problem solving than creating. But that maybe says more about me than about anything else! I hope so too, please don't let me stop you! :)
- hinkley 6y ago
  I don't actually have to draw pictures in my mind. It's more akin to remembering in the dark where the coffee table is so I don't bark my shin. But I know that other people do not work this way, so 'draw myself a picture' is still a gating condition on writing the code.