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:
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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.
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In numinous.productions/ttft, 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.
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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.
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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.
Would like to see the case made with a real/recent invention, incl how thinking tool would have made it happen faster. Or a failed invention that could have been saved?
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The most widely imitated ideas in all came out of years of serious use in shittier pre-cursor systems
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*Nothing* like @RoamResearch existed prior to 2019, yet within a year several copycats launched --> Guard your secrets closely and disbelieve people who tell you that ideas are not important. And be ready to compete on execution with the entire world, once it learns your secrets.
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Hi! here is your unroll: Tools for thought are a beautiful idea—inventions which can “change the thought patterns of an entire civilization.”… threadreaderapp.com/thread/1179873 Share this if you think it's interesting. 🤖
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Tied some of this work together with 's recent post on "Intelligence killed genius" -- think it might be worth considering...
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