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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

In Geeks Bearing Gifts, Ted Nelson points out that while digital cut/paste is a sequential "hide" and "insert", physical cut/paste is inherently parallel: you see all the "cuts" side-by-side, rearranging and trying different configurations. It's a loss:

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

· Feb 25, 2018

Process story! @mayli, @farrarscott, and I finished this endless report on our early math work (https://khanacademy.org/research/reports/early-math…), but @cgingold convinced us we had the story all wrong. Despair, then: we printed it, cut it up, rearranged it, scribbled all over it, and taped it together.

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3:20 AM · Mar 20, 2020·Twitter Web App

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

·

Mar 20, 2020

Replying to

@andy_matuschak

I think undue formality is a key part of the problem. When physically cutting and pasting, you pass through lots of temporary “invalid” configurations as you explore the space. Sequential cut/paste as hide/insert makes temporary states dangerous (don't lose your pasteboard!).

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

·

Mar 20, 2020

This relates to the problem of "peripheral vision", but it's closer to the old HCI problem of "detail-in-context" (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.109.2016&rep=rep1&type=pdf…) and the problems which

@Dynamicland1

aspires to solve.

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

· Dec 5, 2019

Software interfaces undervalue peripheral vision! (a thread) My physical space is full of subtle cues. Books I read or bought most recently are lying out. Papers are lying in stacks on my desk, roughly arranged by their relationships.

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

·

Mar 20, 2020

Also related: parallel reading is surprisingly hard on screens! PDF or EPUB readers don't let readers view multiple pages at a time. Want to look at the bibliography corresponding to the text you’re reading? Enjoy flipping back and forth.

@liquidtext

is the golden exception.

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Andy Matuschak

@andy_matuschak

·

Mar 20, 2020

Some related notes: * https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Parallel_reading_is_mostly_impossible_in_digital_reading… * https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Physical_cut_and_paste_is_a_parallel_act_involving_informal_intermediate_states… * https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Peripheral_vision… *

notes.andymatuschak.org

Approaches for visualizing large graphs

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Congrats! You have peaked in life because Chandra

@NCResq

·

Mar 20, 2020

Replying to

@andy_matuschak

That "cut up and rearranged" essay makes me so happy. I tried something similar once when I was at a writing workshop and it was super effective to the extent that it permanently changed how I approach writing.

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bchjam

@bchjam

·

Mar 20, 2020

Replying to

@andy_matuschak

I wish clipboards worked more like ephemeral context boards.

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bchjam

@bchjam

· Nov 24, 2019

What if instead of a clipboard we had a context-board of recent interactions? No explicit copy, only a short-term memory of relevant media artifacts. Aligning contexts provides a side door to serendipitous interaction. How well does this collab framing apply to comms?

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