Jay McGavren’s Journal

This phenomenon should not be news to anybody, but it should be a consideration in the design of any system that allows collaboration, so I need to jot something about it here…

I had a one-sided IM conversation with a co-worker earlier this week - I suspected he’d stepped away from his desk, and he had, but I was queuing it up in the log for him to review when he returned. In typing out a description of the problem I was having, I mostly worked it out on my own. The resulting “conversation” was rambling, but it resulted in a solution without my co-worker lifting a finger. He later told me that he and another team member use each other as “sounding boards” all the time, working out problems simply by describing them.

And here I am, about to go converse with another person who I know has only incidental knowledge of the system I’m working on. But I’m breaking from the usual workflow, and need to ensure I won’t cause any harm. I feel like I won’t have done my due dilligence until I’ve talked it out with another person.

I’m sure you all remember my earlier rant about Enso 2.0 and the discussion with [ICR] that followed… Well, Andreas Schuderer is even more doubtful about the new design that I - so much so that he’s done a lengthy writeup on his reasoning and a usable demo with a possible fix.

I like his scratchpad a lot better than “open notepad”, that’s for sure.

By not providing (or insisting upon the use of) an editor, Enso has moved away from the noun-verb interaction that Archy encouraged. This may be a step in the right direction again.

Bloxes. A great idea that Aza Raskin should have sold to someone else to implement.

Look, I know all about distractibility, believe me. I know about having more ideas than you could ever possibly do. That’s why you need to discipline yourself and focus. Archy was a good starting place, and a good final goal. Enso was arguably a necessary detour. (But it’s not making money any more, is it?) The music search service was, well, what the hell was it? And now you’re breaking off into manufacturing?

I have the utmost respect for you and your work. But if you spread yourself too thin, each of your projects is going to disappear the moment you turn your attention away from it.

I copied my comment on my Enso 2.0 prototype problems to the Humanized blog, and got this reply from “Andreas”:

> It also shows why adding complexity to the system is a Bad Idea. If bad design doesn’t get you, entropy will.

Very true. And sounds like a Larry Wall quote. :-D

They just posted a new version of the prototype. We’ll see if it addresses any of my concerns.

Here’s the article…

Basically, everything that used to be \[capslock][command-name] {arguments}/[capslock] is now \[capslock][command-name]/[capslock]{arguments}\[enter]/[enter]. About the only part I like so far is that {arguments} can have shift-characters now.

Perhaps I’m being hasty, but perhaps not. Full impressions in a few days.

“researchers now say last-minute second thoughts come from a specific part of the brain.”

I remembered this article last night after taking advantage of Halo 3’s feature where you have 5 seconds to abort just after hitting the “start game” menu. Someone at Bungie is keeping up on their cognitive psychology.

(Actually this feature’s been around since Halo 2, which predates this particular study. But that feature wasn’t thrown in at random, and the study vindicates it.)

Finished Legendary on Saturday. Collected the last of the skulls last night.

I told Diana she has to let me sleep now.