BTMW Time Motion Communication

Brian:

(entrance to W+K Portland- 100,000+ thumbtacks)

Ch. 9, Failure

In this short chapter, Maeda speaks on the possibility of failure. Sometimes, no matter what you do to prevent it, failure will happen, and that is okay. There is a lot to be said about failing, as well as a lot to learn. Many people are very concerned about competition, being the best and looking the best, ripping styles and copying ideas, and by doing so they don’t learn a thing at all. Letting yourself go through with an idea that may fail is in essence venturing into uncharted personal territories, where you have no personal experience to rely on. This forces you to learn and take note, and overall, this experience forces you to try new things. They may not turn out to be the best, and that’s okay, because that’s not what we’re here for.

Ch. 10, The One / Keys 1, 2, 3

Maeda highlights key points in his book and brings to light a few real world examples where complexity and simplicity are used hand-in-hand to provide a better experience and end result for the people. Google seems to be doing this the best, as their method of “remote computing” is taking off, with Docs, Wave, Voice, and Mail. The idea that you can access any of your documents, and discussions, or any email from any computer in the world, is more powerful than any top of the line computer out. The idea of storing data “far far away” is more than likely something we will be seeing a lot more of in the future as personal computers and programs become increasingly more bloated.

The power of open source is also another great example Maeda speaks upon. “Openness simplifies complexity” - the idea of open source / open knowledge is extremely powerful, where now there are an unlimited amount of users contributing to the solution to a problem, as opposed to a closed-source select few. With platforms like Linux, and interaction such as API’s, designers and developers are now creating completely custom experiences utilizing frameworks of larger, stable, tried-and-true technologies. The ‘collective mind’ mentality of this movement is definitely a powerful thing.