Episodes

  • Feeling, Form, and Function

    Feeling, Form, and Function

    · Synthetic A Priori

    Part 1: 00:11
    Digesting the experience from using Alexander's methods on a real building project, how feeling is different from analyzing

    Mentioned:

    For an intro to Christopher Alexander's work, see my lecture: Christopher Alexander: A Primer


    Part 2: 14:19
    How form and function are the same thing: better form has better function. Changing the design so it feels better and then finding out it now also works better.

    Mentioned:

    A school teaching Alexander's methods, hands-on: Building BeautyThe Building Beauty Software Initiative
  • Fundierung and the Level of Life

    Fundierung and the Level of Life

    · Synthetic A Priori

    Part 1: 00:11
    Alexander's definition of "living structure" and how to deal with it

    Mentioned:

    My livestream lecture: Christopher Alexander: A PrimerAlexander tells the story about objections to the Berkley development in this short video: The Application of FeelingNikos Salingaro's mathematical measure of living structure is in his book A Theory of ArchitectureOn eye movement in architecture, see Ann Sussman's work

    Part 2: 13:18
    Describing "life" as a function afforded by form, connection to Husserl's fundierung and Gibson's notion of affordances

    Mentioned:

    Stuart Kauffman's Screwdriver ProblemOn the idea of a "hire" in Job To Be Done Theory, see Competing Against Luck for an introductionFundierung, function, and facticity are explained in Gian-Carlo Rota's 1989 paper Fundierung as Logical ConceptThe book I meant to recommend is Gian-Carlo Rota's Indiscrete Thoughts, not The Star and The Whole (which is also interesting but not written by Rota).J.J. Gibson's book on affordances: The Ecological Approach to Visual PerceptionAlexander's 15 Properties are explained in The Nature of Order Book One.

    Part 3: 23:47
    What it "is" versus what it "does", three levels of software: the backend, the interaction layer, the layer of life. Music software example. Basecamp concept example.

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  • Iterating the Form/Context Boundary

    Iterating the Form/Context Boundary

    · Synthetic A Priori

    Part 1: 00:17
    Point forecasts vs. system properties, estimating project length vs. the distribution of the error

    Mentioned:

    Nassim Taleb on EconTalkHis recent paper: On Single Point Forecasts for Fat-Tailed Variables (PDF)

    Part 2: 04:39
    Christopher Alexander and software in the 90s vs. today, implementation vs. product, Building Beauty

    Mentioned:

    The Building Beauty Software InitiativeMy livestream lecture: Christopher Alexander: A Primer

    Part 3: 09:22
    Form/context and supply/demand boundaries, defining requirements once vs. iteratively, prototyping an affinitizing interface for an app to analyze job-to-be-done interviews

    Part 4: 23:05

    Moving the form/context boundary , inner and outer boundaries, recursively applying the same design process

    Part 5: 31:03

    Learning what language to use by trying to use it

  • Movement in Market Space

    Movement in Market Space

    · Synthetic A Priori

    Part 1: 00:11
    Introduction to a formal idea of market space, three jobs Basecamp does, turning the jobs into basis vectors for a neighborhood of a market space.

    Mentioned:

    If you aren't familiar with "jobs to be done" see Competing Against Luck for an introduction.


    Part 2: 16:00
    Vectors in market space as functional systems, locating struggles in existing systems, value as degree of struggle, struggle on the demand side as design requirements on the supply side.

    Part 3: 23:46
    Trade-offs, choosing where to "move" the product, supply-side motivations, how market space changes, how trends affect the stability of market locations.

  • Design as a Multi-Scale Network, Risk as Network Structure

    Design as a Multi-Scale Network, Risk as Network Structure

    · Synthetic A Priori

    Part 1: 00:12
    Network theory, multi-scale networks, example of building a clustering feature on a side project, two scales of design: the feature level and the implementation level

    Mentioned:

    Barabasi's work on Network MedicineHarry Crane's Probabilistic Foundations of Statistical Network Analysis"More is different" is the title of an article by P.W. Anderson


    Part 2: 13:54
    Unfolding as a network dynamic, learning at the fine scale under constraints from the large scale

    Mentioned:

    Christopher Alexander describes unfolding processes in Book 2 of the Nature of Order


    Part 3: 20:05
    Risk, thin-tailed vs. fat-tailed variables, how underlying structure gives rise to different shapes of distributions, orthogonality and interdependence

    Mentioned:

    Nassim Taleb. See Probability, Risk, and Extremes (PDF) on thin vs fat-tailed variables. Re: the relationship between distributions and underlying structure: "... we cannot rule out that it is not fat tailed unless we understand the process." (emphasis added)

    Part 4: 30:14
    Patchiness of risk in a design problem, observation in science vs. active control in design, targeting unknowns, redesigning at the feature scale based on information from the implementation scale, example of designing for independence

    Part 5: 38:35
    Scopes in Shape Up as tangled network neighborhoods, structure vs. opacity in the network, alternation between identifying structure and removing "the fog"

    Mentioned:

    Scopes are explained in the Scope Mapping chapter of Shape Up


    Outro: 46:05
    Is this thing on? Say hello or just raise your hand with a DM to @rjs on Twitter.

  • System Design, Pattern Languages, and Cognitive Grammar

    System Design, Pattern Languages, and Cognitive Grammar

    · Synthetic A Priori

    Part 1: 00:56
    Patterns as functional pairings of context and form, pattern languages, generic patterns vs. unique languages designed for a project

    Mentioned:

    System design per Taguchi was discussed in Episode 4Alexander defines form and context in Notes on the Synthesis of FormThe book: A Pattern LanguageThe pattern language for the Eishin School is detailed in Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth


    Part 2: 11:26
    Speaking the language of Basecamp's patterns: "bucket access" and "commentables"


    Part 3: 16:38
    Langacker's Cognitive Grammar, symbols, phonological and semantic poles, defining Shape Up as a system, how system components are like semantic poles of symbols, naming things

    Mentioned:

    Ronald Langacker's landmark books: Foundations of Cognitive Grammar Vol 1 and Vol 2See also this newer introductory text by Langacker: Cognitive Grammar: A Basic IntroductionOn unit status and the "chalk sharpener" example, see this Cognitive Grammar lecture by Martin Hilpert (29:08)Repetition and scale transformation were discussed on Episode 3For interdependent vs. modular architectures, see Chapter 6 of The Innovator's Solution
  • Walls in Space and Time, System vs. Parameter Design

    Walls in Space and Time, System vs. Parameter Design

    · Synthetic A Priori

    Part 1: 00:46
    Displaying data adjacent in space vs. adjacent in time, Stuart Kauffman's work-constraint cycles, time boundaries, eureka moments, an example of defining a system boundary from Basecamp 4

    Mentioned:

    Edward Tufte's The Visual Display of Quantitative InformationStuart Kauffman describes the "Constraint Work Cycle" in Chapter 3 of A World Beyond Physics

    Part 2: 20:44
    System vs. parameter design in Taguchi's work, time constraints for R&D vs. production work, explaining parameter design and cost of quality improvements with an omelette

    Mentioned:

    Taguchi explains parameter design in Introduction to Quality Engineering: Designing Quality into Products and ProcessesThe form/context boundary in Christopher Alexander's Notes on the Synthesis of FormTweet on R&D vs. Production ModeSystem design is another term for shaping. On shaping, see Shape Up, Chapter 2Tweet on open vs. closed unknowns and knowing where an unknown "stops"
  • Scale Tradeoffs and Transformations

    Scale Tradeoffs and Transformations

    · Synthetic A Priori

    Intro: 00:00
    Phases of concretizing: articulating the idea vs. getting to the idea

    Part 1: 02:40
    Scale transformations, scale tradeoffs, examples of multiscale systems

    Mentioned:

    The New England Complex Systems Institute's founder, Yaneer Bar-YamYaneer's book Making Things Work. See Chapter 4 for scale tradeoffs and the military example.Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety


    Part 2: 16:45
    Tweeting vs. writing an article as examples of different scales, bottom-up and top-down order

    Mentioned:

    Tweet on phases of new product development: R&D, Production, and Cleanup


    Part 3: 29:49
    Launching a new product, a scale transition from separate conversations to a group announcement

    Mentioned:

    Basecamp's new email app and service, Hey.com


    Summary: 38:22
    The end of "R&D mode" as a scale transformation, experiment at smalls scale to find parameters at large scale

  • Risk, Possibilities, Opacity and Creativity

    Risk, Possibilities, Opacity and Creativity

    · Synthetic A Priori

    Intro: 00:00
    Going upstream along the path of concretizing an idea

    Part 1: 02:38
    Phenomenology, "bracketing"

    Mentioned:

    Twitter thread on affordances and phenomenologyThe “ambient optic array” in JJ Gibson’s Ecological Approach to Visual PerceptionWikipedia pages on Husserl and Epoché (bracketing)


    Part 2: 10:23
    Uncertainty, two kinds of opacity: risk and richness, creative constraints

    Mentioned:

    The circuit breaker to manage uncertainty in Shape UpOn "opacity" see any of Taleb's books, especially Antifragile


    Part 3: 25:18
    Ontology, res extensa and res potentia, the adjacent possible

    Mentioned:

    Stuart Kauffman's Res Potentia and Res ExtensaOn the evolution of tech, see the epilogue of Kauffman's A World Beyond Physics
  • Affordances, Category Theory, Convexity of Social Media

    Affordances, Category Theory, Convexity of Social Media

    · Synthetic A Priori

    Introduction: 00:00
    Introducing the podcast


    Part 1: 00:30
    Social media, convexity, and data ownership


    Mentioned:

    Bob Moesta, co-creator of Jobs to be Done theoryThe New England Complex Systems Institute, NECSINassim Taleb's AntifragileBen Thompson on owning your media


    Part 2: 19:50
    Category theory, affordances, jobs to be done, reference frames for types (when a temperature becomes a fever)


    Mentioned:

    The Khan-style YouTube video: Category Theory on a Desert Island"Shaping" and "appetite" refer to my book Shape UpJ.J. Gibson's book on affordances: The Ecological Approach to Visual PerceptionWolfram's Physics Project, and Relations to Category Theory live streamRich Hickey, author of Clojure, and his talk on Values vs. Place-Oriented ProgrammingStuart Kauffman's Screwdriver Problem