Andy MatuschakVerified account

@andy_matuschak

Wonder, blunder, salve, solve! Technology; design; research. Inventing tools and media which help us think. Past: led R&D ; helped build iOS .

San Francisco, CA
andymatuschak.org
Joined November 2007
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  1. Pinned Tweet
    Oct 3

    Tools for thought are a beautiful idea—inventions which can “change the thought patterns of an entire civilization.” But that’s a 30 year old quote. Why are they so hard to make? and I try to answer that question and suggest paths forward:

    14 replies 100 retweets 446 likes
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  2. 21 hours ago

    Those backlinks provide kindling for writing the "proper" content of the node later. Seems important for the system to display the backlinks' *context:* a simple list of backlinks won’t implicitly define a node very effectively. Gotta see the context around the link.

    3 replies 15 likes
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  3. 21 hours ago

    I first noticed this watching use Roam. As he took notes on our chats, he made certain noun phrases (e.g. my name, named theories) into node links. Those nodes had no content of their own, but after a few days, they developed an implicit definition through the backlinks.

    5 replies 2 retweets 35 likes
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  4. 21 hours ago

    Knowledge systems which display contextual backlinks to a node open up an interesting new behavior. You can bootstrap a new node extensionally (rather than intensionally) by simply linking to it from many other nodes—even before it has any content.

    2 replies 1 retweet 47 likes
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  5. Retweeted
    Oct 24
    Replying to

    A recent obsession of mine! Two recs for you: And Interestingly, the Hoover Dam was the creation of six companies that merged because none had the budget or talent to do it alone. Was literally named the Six Companies 🤓

    1 reply 3 retweets 41 likes
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  6. Oct 24

    (Obligatory plug for ’s here!)

    4 replies 2 retweets 42 likes
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  7. Oct 24

    Visiting the Hoover Dam feels to me like visiting a rift into an alternate timeline—one in which we attempt enormous, absurd, starry-eyed projects… and achieve them, under budget and years ahead of schedule! I’d love to better understand the forces which made that possible.

    96 replies 58 retweets 537 likes
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  8. Oct 18

    UI vs UX, Palm Springs edition

    2 replies 11 retweets 59 likes
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  9. Oct 11

    What a fantastic visualization of the painful dance between taste and ability in creative work. Not just for painting! (via )

    Actually the Art Thing I think about most is this graph (created by painter Marc Dalessio). No joke I think about this graph every single day. I've told my therapist about it. It's gotten me through a lot of dark slumps. I try to tell myself my wrist just is catching up to my eye
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    3 replies 16 retweets 83 likes
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  10. Oct 10

    Developing this piece with has helped me tentatively resolve that tension: it's a yes-and. This was a huge relief! I saw that the practices were somehow limited—but they were too predictive to write off, and I couldn't see how to subsume them.

    2 replies 17 likes
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  11. Oct 10

    On a personal level, that idea was the emotional core of the piece for me. I've really struggled with my relationship to design. I've felt enthralled and empowered by its remarkable practices, but also instinctively uneasy that the work I most admire seems subtly "apart" from it.

    2 replies 20 likes
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  12. Oct 10

    In , and I argue that the most powerful tools for thought express deep, novel insights into the underlying subject matter. It's not enough to empathize with users—the designer must be able to produce original research in the target domain.

    2 replies 8 retweets 32 likes
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  13. Oct 10

    Modern design practice demands deep engagement with users' context: interviewing, embedding, reading, empathizing. Such a powerful discipline… yet it's hard to shake the sense that the people creating profound tools for thought are doing all those things—somehow way more deeply.

    2 replies 1 retweet 13 likes
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  14. Oct 9

    …breaking down the wall between authorial exposition and computational representations…

    2 replies 1 retweet 8 likes
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  15. Sep 19

    “I wish game designers would take over the consumer software industry...”

    Replying to @andy_matuschak
    Funny to think Game Neverending -> Flickr & Slack -> Facebook, Instagram, (probably) WhatsApp and many others. So they sorta did.
    1 reply 1 retweet 13 likes
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  16. Sep 19

    (I’ve said it many times before but: I really wish game designers would take over the consumer software industry)

    6 replies 12 retweets 101 likes
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  17. Sep 19

    “Skins” for apps are usually just graphic, but what if you could the fundamental emotional tenor of e.g. your email client according to mood, like choosing a playlist? This game is an email app—but with focused emotional design. (h/t !)

    3 replies 32 retweets 153 likes
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  18. Aug 15

    I'm wary of phone AR in general, but this is a fascinating application: using it to "join as spectator" the VR environment of someone in the same room.

    Using AR to see into the VR world
    6 retweets 53 likes
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  19. Aug 11

    Have you ever read someone else's diary / notebook and found it thrilling? Why did it feel so striking? Did you feel closer to the person, or did it clarify the distance? (stealing+amplifying this question from !)

    6 replies 1 retweet 26 likes
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  20. Aug 5

    🗣🎙 I had a wonderful time discussing technologies for thought on this week's EconTalk: 's even-handed analytical style has made this my favorite podcast for years, but of course he's also an experienced educator. A great combo for this topic!

    8 replies 18 retweets 182 likes
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