Archive for September, 2010
Ideas for a 50th Birthday
In just six months, Doctor Disruption has already turned 50 (posts), and enjoyed a special birthday cake today! He created a wordle of recent entries which you can see above, and in a different format below. Read more »
Principles of Design #4 – Not Invented Here
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it” - Alan Kay Read more »
Principles of Design #3 – Priming
Priming is the process by which specific ideas are activated in order to influence subsequent behaviour. This is based on the fact that memory is based on networks of associations, and therefore whatever stimulus enters the brain, triggers those associations most actively and closely identified with the first stimulus. Once concepts are activated in memory they tend to stay activated for a while, influencing behaviour over a period of time. Read more »
Listening to the Rhythm of Life
“The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen more and talk less.” - Zeno Read more »
Principles of Design #2 – Uncertainty Principle
Werner Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1932 for his creation of quantum mechanics, at the tender age of 31. He is best known for his uncertainty principle, which states that we can never know both the position and momentum of a particle, because when we measure one of these it affects the other.
This principle is often generalised in design to state that the act of measuring sensitive variables in any system will alter them, and therefore confound the accuracy of the measurement. A simple example is that if you measure computer performance, which is often done by event logging, this increases the visibility of what the computer is doing, but also consumes computing power which therefore changes the performance.
