Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: M10K

Author:David Carter-Tod
Posted:8/26/1999; 1:32:26 PM
Topic:M10K
Msg #:10000 (In response to 9998)
Prev/Next:9999 / 10001

Dave Winer gives me a wish.

Make me powerful. Let me change the world. Let me communicate with people without thinking about how it's done. Give me the tools and get out of my way.

I get a listing on Scripting News and a few seconds of fame. That's fine. Someone notices and contacts me. We exchange ideas and something happens. I've made someone else powerful. That's important.

Let me create something new that makes a difference. I'm happiest when creating, solving, communicating, doing something beautiful.

I couldn't type in 1991. I taught myself on a Japanese OS, in Japanese. There's an exercise in usability -- learn an OS when you can't read what's on the screen!

I used PCs in 1992 in English. My writing changed immeasurably.

I used a Mac in 1993. I got things done. I started with multimedia and the web.

I learned Hypercard in 1994. Applescript, Usertalk and Frontier, Java followed. Now I'm on NT and Linux, learning ASP, VBScript. Python next?

I'm finally starting to feel that if I have an idea, I can make it happen.

So now what? Let me draw an analogy with VR. It gets better and better. One day, it'll be so good you can't tell the difference. Put on a headset and it's just like you're in the same room with another human being. So what!? What are you going to talk about? You still need something interesting to say, something interesting to do. Sooner or later we need to ask that question

I'm not a programmer. I'm an instructional technologist. All of this is a means to an end, not an end in itself. I want to create better learning experiences for people. That's first.

Give me the tools that are so good, I don't notice I'm using them.

David

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