A recent, popular Internet video of Destin Sandlin riding a bike with reverse steering led me to reflect on our tendency to equate knowledge with things that computers do. If we could formulate a “science of learning,” we would be able to design algorithms that help people learn faster and much more reliably. As Destin struggles to understand why he cannot ride the bike, he reveals how our common sense is blind to embodied knowledge. Continue reading Why We Don’t Know Know-How
Category Archives: Technology
The Facebook Method of Dealing With Complexity
Computer systems used to be weak, so we had to make their world simple and standardized. They now can handle almost endless complexity—but we still need to understand how to make the world simple, so we don’t risk burdening the majority of users with the needless complexity of the few. Continue reading The Facebook Method of Dealing With Complexity
Are We Wrong About Innovation?
We are gripped by madness about innovation. The popular press has latched on to the notion that creating ideas and imagining new worlds fashioned around these ideas are the keys to innovation. This notion is all wrong. Continue reading Are We Wrong About Innovation?
The Self-Similarity of Tech
Silicon Valley, and the high‐tech industry in general, promotes itself as the inventor of the future, pushing aside old businesses and disrupting lifestyles in the name of progress. But I don’t think so. Actually, high‐tech is caught in a repeating self-similar fractal, where the gadgets may be new, but the business methods and processes are as old as the Industrial Revolution itself. Continue reading The Self-Similarity of Tech