Sunday, October 15, 2006

Breaker breaker In the interests of both physical and mental health, I'm considering taking a break from blogging. Not forever, but right now there is simply too much on my plate, and I don't need to feel that I'm a slacker if I don't post every day on every topic that strikes me as noteworthy. Last week I started to feel way too much as I did back in April before and after the TIA. Stress is my enemy. Talk  about letting go and not trying to control everything. . . listen up, Fred! 8:00:04 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Emergent makes me think of cocoons And I don't think it's cocoons that Rashmi had in mind when she put together the recent BayCHI panel on Designing for Emergent Behavior. One of the reasons I attended—aside from the stellar lineup—was to learn just what "emergent behavior" means. And I finally figured out that it refers to what I  call, courtesy of Edward Tenner, "unintended consequences." Or maybe it's unanticipated consequences. Whatever. Panelist Peter Merholz does a good job of summing up the discussion. For me, it all harked back to some of the talk at DUX 2005 even before Tenner took the stage with the closing keynote. I was thinking all evening about the benefits of letting go, of relinquishing control, of not even trying to control the way that people use your precious product. Let them surprise you; in many cases, the crowd is smarter than you are, and the best design will enable revelation. 7:56:46 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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