The Plumbing of Everyday Magic(plumbing-of-everyday-magic.hyperclay.com)
plumbing-of-everyday-magic.hyperclay.com
The Plumbing of Everyday Magic
https://plumbing-of-everyday-magic.hyperclay.com/
3 comments
I think the problem with the opening metaphor is that using stuff is fundamentally different from making stuff. Clicking the button on an app works so reliably because everybody uses it the same way. They open the app, they click the button. The point of building things is that you are doing something different and new! And sure, you could say "but for the individual part of my workflow, I'm using using a tool," but you're still trying to do something new with those tools.
> using stuff is fundamentally different from making stuff
It doesn't have to be. See:
It doesn't have to be. See:
Tim Berners-Lee's original WorldWideWeb browser[1]
document.designMode
classic web (with readable html and javascript)
HyperCard
Various Smalltalk-based systems (Alice, Etoys, etc.)
Minecraft (and maybe Roblox?)
Game editors (from Pinball Construction Set to
RPG Maker to Scratch to Super Mario Maker, ...)
Games with editable source code: BASIC, Python, ...
Construction toys (blocks, legos, etc.)
Tabletop RPGs
> Good tools don't hide complexity behind a curtain, they eliminate the need for it.
Good tools absolutely hide complexity behind a curtain. The faucet example at the beginning, that tool is hiding a whole industry's worth of complexity. The trade-off is that it only does one thing. If you want to do something more complicated e.g. build a water park, you either have to deal with that new complexity yourself or hope someone else builds the infrastructure you need.
I can sympathize with the author that the web isn't as easy to create on as they envision. That would be cool. But so would flying cars. Those aren't impossible either, but both require a whole lot of "plumbing" that hasn't been built.