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Re: New tool wars! WAS: Pinsky poem in the Atlantic "Jar of Pens"
Subject:Re: New tool wars! WAS: Pinsky poem in the Atlantic "Jar of Pens" From:Ben Kovitz <bkovitz -at- nethere -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 15 May 2002 08:31:34 -0700
Sometimes I've got to get away from the keyboard (and mouse).
Especially when making a diagram or designing a screen. Sometimes the
computer seems to constrain thought to follow only a very narrow range
of paths. The glory of pencil and paper is that enormous range of
possible lines you can draw.
Moving things around is much harder with pencil than with Visio, of
course. But it's very quick to just start a whole new diagram with
the pencil. I'll run through three or four ideas for diagrams on
paper, then make a neat version of the best one using Visio or
Illustrator. I like to see the ideas that didn't work out. I don't
like for them to disappear.
Without getting away from the keyboard sometimes, it seems that the
simple way to see the information wouldn't have a chance to emerge.
It would get force-fit to the preconceived structure suggested by the
computer.
There's some important lesson in all this, but I don't know what it
is.
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