Ever so neat parts to fit together
Five fragments for the week of February 26, 2024
Leap Day, here we come. (Will you take any leaps?) I’m Diana Kimball Berlin, a partner at Matrix leading concept through Series A rounds in B2B SaaS and AI startups. Here are five fragments that stuck with me last week…
Sketchpad encountered a critical challenge that remains central to human- computer interaction. Sutherland’s original aim was to make computers accessible to new classes of user (artists and draughtsmen among others), while retaining the powers of abstraction that are critical to programmers. In contrast, direct manipulation interfaces have since succeeded by reducing the levels of abstraction exposed to the user.
– Alan Blackwell and Kerry Rodden in the preface to the 2003 reprint of Ivan Sutherland’s 1963 dissertation on Sketchpad, the predecessor of modern computer-assisted design (CAD) programs. How much power to expose, and how to expose it? That’s always the question.
I, for one, am and will always remain a practicing technologist. When denied my minimum daily adult dose of technology, I get grouchy. I believe that technology is fun, especially when computers are involved, a sort of grand game or puzzle with ever so neat parts to fit together. I have turned down several lucrative administrative jobs because they would deny me that fun. If the technology you do isn't fun for you, you may wish to seek other employment. Without the fun, none of us would go on.
– Ivan Sutherland, “Technology and Courage,” published in 1996. Along the Sutherland thread, I came across this—according to Sutherland, “the first, and nearly the only, non-technical lecture I have ever given.” If you could use some encouragement this week, I recommend these 33 pages.
Conscious fun takes effort. This seeming paradox—Why should fun be work?—stops us in our tracks.
– Laura Vanderkam, Off the Clock, published in 2018. Speaking of fun, a fragment from my highlights archive.
Our results show that gaze direction has a significant impact on inter-brain synchrony during collaboration in VR. The impact appears especially obvious in terms of the number of inter-brain connections between pre and post-training in natural gaze condition in the alpha frequency. The alpha band is known for attention suppression. The finding suggests that the interaction during natural gaze may have given people a better sense of focus in order to suppress inputs from other modalities.
– Ihshan Gumilar et al., “Inter-brain Synchrony and Eye Gaze Direction During Collaboration in VR,” CHI EA ’22: Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. The more I use the Apple Vision Pro, the more I think about gaze. My thanks to Ihshan for sharing the full report with me.
I like the consistency in this one - faces aren’t too melty
A comment on a short film clip posted in the Runway subreddit. We won’t be dealing with melty faces for long.
Until next time,
Diana
https://dianaberlin.com