Wednesday, September 04, 2002


Solving for pattern.  (as posted by McGee, note: this entire post is not mine except for the stuff in this parentesis)

Bloggers uncover the implicit and make it explici. (SOURCE:Mathemagenic)-Great idea! Bloggers build stories to make the implicit explicit.

I've been trying to articulate out what these professions have in common that could explain why weblogging has become an especially popular practice in those areas. I'm not finished thinking about it yet, but I think the commonality has to do with uncovering the implicit. Software developers patiently explain to a machine things for which humans wouldn't need an explanation. Journalists take threads from different places and build a coherent story out of them. Teachers patiently explain to students things for which trained specialists wouldn't need an explanation. Librarians gather and organize explicitly material that is only implicitly connected. Lawyers, whenever they seek to correctly interpret the intent of a law, need to uncover its spirit which is almost always implicit. All of them are not just pattern recognizers, they are also pattern explainers.
[Roland Tanglao's Weblog]

Wendell Berry has a phrase I've always liked: solving for pattern. It catches the notion that interesting answers are rarely obvious.

The other thing that these professions share is that they are all people who think for a living. As such, they've developed a healthy respect for the time and effort it takes to develop a decent thought. This may be less evident to bloggers than it might otherwise seem. If you write or even read blogs regularly, you're accustomed to thinking and may not recognize how rare a skill it is (it is a skill and, therefore, something that can be developed).

[McGee's Musings]
10:19:25 PM