The word ‘app’ is horrendous. It makes me think of Angry Birds and Candy Crush. It feels utterly inadequate to describe the majesty of things like and
Conversation
Alan Kay argued that "medium" is often a more powerful frame than "tool." doubles down, suggests "environment" is better still—includes cultural context, social interaction, ecology, etc. Notion/Roam have some environment-like properties, so "tool" feels wrong.
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(I've found the phrase "enabling environment" to be quite generative as an aspiration… some rough notes along those lines here: notes.andymatuschak.org/z3DaBP4vN1dutj)
I think the analogies that make the most sense feel architectural—making spaces, environments, contexts, places
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Institutions
I’ve never been more cognizant of how the office is an enabling environment than during the months long WFH imposed by the pandemic — and interestingly it’s the social glue from interpersonal interactions that’s been toughest to replicate with software
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This of course, is one of the tougher challenges for those that would disrupt colleges — they don’t just have to create curriculum, but also build an entire enabling environment