This week I have learned:
- That there might be a distinction between soft software and hard software. What we traditionally think of as software is actually pretty hard – explicit artefacts of code and user interfaces. However the soft software is the usually tactic meanings and culture that has led to the software’s creation. Some of that is within the organisation creating the software, some of it from the companies providing the building blocks. It takes talking to an art historian to understand why this might be important.
- Teaching students these days is hard. Assessing them even more so. Traditional models of student assessment in most subjects have been broken by generative technologies. Academic institutions are flailing about in their attempts to catch up.
- What are the reasons for getting kids to read books these days? The medium relevance is dying in competition with digital channels.
- Interestingly, my less-bookish child reads more books than his more bookish sibling these days. But that’s because he reads manga, and graphic novels don’t translate well to digital platforms.
- It was lovely to visit the East Midlands again to give a talk. It’s a very long time since I lived there.
- I wonder if people think about me as a randomiser?
- The origins of the word “random” stem from an old French word for “gallop”.
- Getting generative tools to do silly things is the way forward… https://docs.google.com/document/d/1stzd07yj3_xLOoyuTcR-1-6yP8OLaVm97oz7qk44sa8/
- Moments of feeling like an imposter are my brain’s way of checking I’ve double-checked things.
- I might have been confusing anxiety with full-blown panic.
- And I also might have uncovered a source of anxiety that goes right by to my very beginnings.
- Big old industrial architecture can be so beautiful.
The week in media
Read:
Having at least completed Question 7 (a reflection on my time for reading more than the book which I enjoyed), I’m now on to Inventology. A female-written exploration of invention and innovation is, as I had hoped, a quite different experience to the usual “great men” tosh.
Listened:
This months vinyl additions (Bonobo, Yazmin Lacey, Doves and Nia Archives. Also the new Albertine Sarges album.
Saw:
A couple of episodes of Big Boy which is very amusing.
Also, visited the latest exhibition at Japan House in Kensington. A remarkable little exploration of Japanese master carpentry.
Next week
The final hurdles.
The week in photos
mmitII 