Drawing Dynamic Models

  • “We externalize the thinking process. Each externalized thought forms a model—a simplified representation that allows us to preserve, communicate, or reflect on the thought.” ⤴️
  • “Models aren’t just the end result of the thinking process. Making models can be an integral part of the process of understanding. The act of externalizing, communicating, and reflecting through models changes and advances one’s inner thoughts, surfacing new realizations.” ⤴️
  • “Thoughts move quickly, so the tools we use to make our models must be fast to use and readily available.” ⤴️
  • “When it’s frictionless to externalize your thoughts, you can create many small variations and reflect on the consequences of each change.” ⤴️
  • “representations of thought appear just as much out in the world as they do within our individual brains” ⤴️
  • “By engaging in a conversation (with a person, a piece of paper, or a computer), thinking becomes a feedback loop.” ⤴️
  • “Thinking is a process of affecting and being affected; acting and understanding.” ⤴️
  • “Embedded computation (offloading busywork).” ⤴️
  • “see things from multiple perspectives, and filter information.” ⤴️
  • “We can make things and copy or reuse them without any additional cost.” ⤴️
  • “Klaus Krippendorf calls this the Semantic Turn. Form no longer follows function, it follows semantics.” ⤴️
  • “molds that you may pour your thoughts into.” ⤴️
  • “rich with features for polishing your work, preparing something that is ready to be shared, aligned with the technical and cultural expectations for how such a work ought to appear.” ⤴️
  • “we want tools for exploring the fringes of the possibility space, and for playing with a wide range of low-fidelity representations” ⤴️
  • “You shouldn’t have to think about the technical details of the machine while working on the problem.” ⤴️
  • “You shouldn’t have to name things just so you can refer back to them.” ⤴️
  • “You should never be locked out of your model because you mistyped something or made an erroneous connection. The model should remain alive and usable” ⤴️
  • “You should see everything.” ⤴️
  • You should be able to inspect everything. You should be able to see how bigger parts are built from smaller parts,” ⤴️
  • “In short, instead of molding your problem to the machine, the machine should be molded to fit your problem.” ⤴️
  • “You shouldn’t have to learn two separate modes of working.” ⤴️