Join 📚 Josh Beckman's Highlights

A batch of the best highlights from what Josh's read, .

Or to be more specific, urbanist Kevin Lynch’s city maps from his 1960 book The Image of the City. I’ve described his approach here (March 2021) (where I also pick at the possible neurological underpinnings) so to briefly summarise: Lynch puts forward five primitive elements: paths (e.g. streets); edges (e.g. uncrossable rivers); districts; nodes (e.g. street corners); landmarks (e.g. a recognisable building). Each element has an intuitive way to sketch it, as if on the back of a napkin.

Collecting My Thoughts About Notation and User Interfaces

interconnected.org

The truth is, nearly every attempt to design a hierarchy-free, "flat" control system just moves the central control around until you can't see it anymore. Human structures all have leaders, whether implicit or explicit, and the explicit ones tend to be more diverse.

2020-12-27 »

apenwarr

The most economically powerful thing you can do is to buy something for your own enjoyment that also improves the world. This has always been the value proposition of journalism and art. It’s a nonexclusive good that’s best enjoyed nonexclusively.

Unlocking the Commons

Tim Carmody

...catch up on these, and many more highlights