As previously noted, I’m reading Paul Dourish’s book, Where the Action Is, in which he explores the branch of philosophy called phenomenology as a possible theoretical basis for embodied interaction. In particular, he mentions the work of Heidegger, about which I know nothing but a couple brief summaries I have read. But the concept which […]
Month: September 2005
Plans and Situated Actions, by Lucy Suchman
Amazon link Subtitled “The problem of human-machine communication”, this book debunked the prevailing philosophy in artificial intelligence at the time it was written in 1987, which was the belief that people worked by making a plan, and then executing it. Suchman examines this seemingly common-sensical idea and pointed out several of the flawed assumptions associated […]
Built to Last, by James Collins and Jerry Porras
Amazon link This is the first book written by the Good to Great authors, so since I liked Good to Great, I figured I should pick this up from the library and read it as well. As in Good to Great, they found a group of example companies that they wanted to study. In this […]
I must live in the Bay Area
After being at work from 10-10 yesterday and 9-7 today, I couldn’t face making dinner, so I went down to the local taqueria. While eating my fish taco, I overheard snippets of conversation from the neighboring tables. On my right, they were discussing the shameful response of the Bush administration to New Orleans, and speculating […]
Contextual considerations
I was reading an interesting thread over at Joel on Software yesterday. The original poster wanted to know how to figure out in the interview process whether a given candidate was the type of person who would be gung-ho and eager to work hard for the glory of the company, or the type of person […]
