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Empathic Web
Originally appeared on Nodalities Blog: http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities Last week I listened to a talk by Shane Hipps, a Porsche "consumer anthropologist" turned Mennonite minister. The speaker, clearly aware of the contradictory nature of his background, made a...
Selfish Web Users
The BBC reported a few days ago that: Web users are getting more ruthless and selfish when they go online, reveals research. The idea is that people are using the web to get things done, and don’t seem to notice that service providers want them to stick around. They...
Defensive Pre-tension
I was listening to one of Stephen Fry's 'podgrams'—"Wallpaper"—in which he briefly touched on the idea that the English tend to classify something as 'pretentious' if they don't understand it. It's a form of defense of tradition or perspective. Intelligence or...
Perspective Applications
**Originally appeared on Nodalities Blog: http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities** Looking at the world through a closed metaphor, like a walled garden, actually stops you from expanding the scope of possibilities available to the software you develop. This is because...
Unfavourable rail network numbers
I have come to the conclusion, after being without a car for five years, that travel by rail in the UK is just about the most infuriating process you can undertake on a regular basis. Every day, one of my 6 train journeys to or from work will fail in some way or...
Back from travels
Well, I and the wife traveled to Limoges in France to Amsterdam over the last two weeks. In France, I had the misfortune of being almost completely without the ability to smell or taste anything thanks to a lingering cold which also incapacitated me on the final...
Semantic Metaphors
Edit: the original blog post on Nodalities blog has been archived/deleted/ignored. I've republished it here. I tend to live in a world of metaphor. It's not my fault, according to Lakoff and Johnson. We all use metaphor all the time: to construct our thoughts...
Walled gardens: mapping the parties
Originally appeared on the Nodalities blog – which has since been consigned to the wayback machine. 29th April 2008, 11:34 am by Zach Beauvais In: Uncategorized The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing on kind of thing in terms of another. -Lakoff and...
Beer for Breakfast | bier voor het ontbijt
It's the transition which hits you. From begging your interlocutor to understand you—to even bend a little in your direction—to being understood so effortlessly but still being in an unfamiliar place. This is traveling from France to Amsterdam. In France, making an...