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diff --git a/2021/talks/pattern.md b/2021/talks/pattern.md index 2000c242..9779161b 100644 --- a/2021/talks/pattern.md +++ b/2021/talks/pattern.md @@ -8,9 +8,9 @@ # Emacs as Design Pattern Learning Greta Goetz -[[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/pattern-schedule)" raw="yes"]] +[[!taglink CategoryPhilosophy]] -Still working on it! In the meantime, you can watch it at <https://toobnix.org/w/afvaVspSSR9YypjUqTypQz> +[[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/pattern-schedule)" raw="yes"]] How do we manage today? This presentation is for people interested in thinking about Emacs as a tool sophisticated enough to cater to the complex assemblage of tasks, people, activities/outcomes, tools (Markauskaite & Goodyear). Some software oversimplifies. Emacs both helps users implement design pattern learning that can cope with complexity while also modeling design pattern learning. By championing the opportunity for users to also be co-creators (cf. Beaty et al.), the free software design at the core and center of Emacs teaches us a way of "being" (Alexander, Gabriel) that can be extended to both the Emacs community and beyond, in a knowledge of how to live (Stiegler, Illich). @@ -48,12 +48,198 @@ four years of Learning@Scale and charting the future. L@S 2018, June 26–28, 20 # Discussion -- this paper is relevant to exploring the space of design patterns: https://www.aaai.org/Papers/Workshops/1998/WS-98-08/WS98-08-024.pdf it's old and a little crytpic, but a good paper. it's "Recommender Systems for Problem Solving Environments" +Pad: + +- Q1: Any reference to a Christopher Alexander book that you liked + most? + - (peer answer A: + - Alexander, C. (1977). A pattern language: towns, buildings, + construction. New York: Oxford University Press. + - Alexander, C. (1979). The timeless way of building. New + York: Oxford University Press. (thanks!!) + - also check out: Gabriel, R. (1996). Patterns of software: + tales from the software community. New York: Oxford + University Press. + (<https://dreamsongs.com/Files/PatternsOfSoftware.pdf>) + - Alexander, C. (1993). *A foreshadowing of 21st century art: + The color and geometry of very early Turkish carpets*. New + York: Oxford University Press. + - A: The peer answer is excellent. If you are looking for an 'entryway' into Alexander, there is also his essay A City Is Not A Tree, <https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dmvaldman/library/master/essays/Alexander%20-%20A%20City%20Is%20Not%20A%20Tree.pdf>. +- Q2: You are making a great case for the ease-of-use, humanizing, and + empowering aspects of Emacs, but how does this align with the + initial difficulty for many users in learning Emacs? What is the + weakness of Emacs here, in relation to these design patterns? + - A: If we take a Vygotskyean approach to learning, we begin step + by step, gradually building on to what we know. What I found + fascinating as a non-programmer coming to Emacs was how this + approach works even in Emacs. Particularly if we are taking a + human-based approach to Emacs, it has no weakness here, because + humans can only move forwards from where they are, not where + they want to be. So Emacs becomes a good teacher in + process-based learning. We need to hierarchize what we know, + what we are ready/motivated to learn next, and also remember the + time required for growth. +- Q3: How do you suggest emacs users should go about desinging their + work(flow) patterns? + - A: Strangely, I seem to have answered this above! +- Q4: Emacs provides a lot of extensibility as mentioned in your talk. + This is a good thing, but such extensibility and possiblility can + sometimes inhibit creativity (for me at least). How could we + incorporate constraints in to how we use Emacs, in order to deal + with the possibilities that might make it's use more complex? A + great answer, thank you! + - A: I love this question. What about thinking about Emacs as + one's own path of desire? What do we want to do most with it? + But also, because Emacs is the ultimate blank canvas, in this + context I would recommend reading Cameron's "Blasting through + blocks" chapter in The Artist's Way to get through any related + anxiety and find one's 'creative purpose' with Emacs. And + building on an answer from above, taking things one + project/activity/outcome at a time. Trusting that over time + skills and proficiency grow. + - I like the idea about "Emacs as one's own path of + desire". It's all in my init.el. + - Emacs is seriously the best in this respect! :) And it is + so great to be part of this conference to be among like + minds!:) +- Q5:In your opinion, what approaches might be tried to introduce + individuals to these aspects of emacs's user experience? In my + experience, many of my co-workers are often impressed with what I am + able to do with emacs, but they remain reticent to attempt it + because I find it difficult to produce a suitably encapsulating + "elevator pitch" for it. + - A: Not everyone wants to think about the tools that they use. + Haha, that is why I am trying to get one convert at a time, and + let them convert others in their midst :) +- Q6: Are there ways to reach out to you after the conference to dig + deeper here? + - A: I blog at <https://gretzuni.com>; my professional site is <https://gretagoetz.com>. +- Q7:On the mention of emacs being 'frontierless': Doesn't this + result in a kind of 'characterless' or 'non-definied' space? For + example, if I learn a musical instrument, I am bound by various + frontiers/horizons (12 tone system, the tamber of the particular + instrument, etc). Surely there are similar limits on the + extensibility of emacs and the possibilities it offers for 'human + expansion'. If so, which limits/boundaries of emacs do you see as + most meaningful/impactful on growth and transformation? + - A: That is a really interesting question. Aren't the limits + here our knowledge? I am really stuck on the idea of Lisp and + its dialects as being particularly philosophical. Any time I + look at what people do with Lisp it seems to be profoundly + related to design on a deeper level. I will leave it here for + now - but thank you for the question, I will be sure to mull it + over and possibly blog about it at some point... + - Hi! Thank you for the answer, that was exactly what I was + thinking about (elisp being something particular/defining to the + emacs experienc/environment). I don't know lisp/programming + myself, so I was just interested in your perpsective! Really + loved the talk a lot! But the way, the question came from a + hermeneutic perspective, where boundaries/horizons are essential + for defining/demarcating the self (of course, within a boundary + there can be endless play, but the limits set the 'rules' for + play, and therefore create meaning).Thanks again! + - A: Wow - a fellow hermeneuticist?! + - Haha, yes. In my past life I studied it ;) also studied a lot of + Stiegler too, so was interested to find him in the talk! + - A: That is quite uncanny! The combination of the three (plus Emacs) + have given me a whole new perspective on life - and I wonder why + Stiegler didn't pursue Free Software more, though he does nod + to it here and there. Do you have any work to share, would you + like to keep in touch? + - sure! would be great! :) My main area was Ricoeur, so I have + written some things on Ricoeur and technology (there was a + recent volume on his work, and I wrote something on + postphenomenology and ricoeur) I've since left academia though, + because it was quite difficult to find full-time work + (especially since hermeneutics is so + underappreciated/underreppresented! so, I always get excited to + hear others talking about it ;) + - A: Yes, I know what you are talking about and actually the whole + future - and present - of academe is an interesting question - + haha that I think is related to Emacs, I mean, we do live in the + knowledge age so we need tools to help with this. Ricoeur has a + great essay on ideology and science critique, which is so limber + (as opposed to so much calcified academic thinking) and I am so + interested in exploring approaches to academe that 'continue + the ongoing work of the hermeneuticist' (I am paraphrasing him + here) that make use of technology, possibly through something + like Ted Nelson had in mind, where we literally trace the traces + among ideas... wow, that's a mouthful of a comment. Ha! I am + overjoyed at the opportunity for this conversation, thank you so + much! :) + - really interesting that you are referencing Ted Nelson in + this context. I think org-roam, in many ways, resembles what + he had in mind with Xandadu; well, with the limitation that + org-roam only serves Personal Information Management, not + our civilisations' as he intended with Xanadu. + - A: That's an interesting point - and related to how org-roam writer Leo is now extending org-roam to collaborative work as he explains in his talk <https://emacsconf.org/2021/talks/erg/>. + - Yes! the feeling is mutual :) I really love Ricoeur's general + style and approach to questions. Unfortunately he didn't write + much about technology itself, which made my job quite difficult! + But I did meet a friend of his once that told me that, in the + 70s, Ricouer had asked him "are we still writing when we use + computers?". So, he was thinking about the question at least. I + only discovered emacs after I finished all that word, but since + then I can finally say that 'yes!' we can 'write' using + computers (with writing being a core activity of the self for + Ricoeur). Also, I just wish I had emacs instead of just writing + so many academic papers in microsoft word! + - A: Yes, the moment of being freed from that software box and + having all the LaTeX options in Emacs (here, I list my fave) is + like stepping into technicolor out of black and white - to this + day, I still feel that way! So much you wrote is interesting. + Stiegler's concern of whether technology - like the writing pad + in Plato earlier - would strip us of our intellectual capacity + (I can see that possibly happening with automaticizing tools + like - maybe Excel is a good example, because one does not + really have to think about what one is doing). But Emacs use + prompts us to ask questions and design *exactly* what we are + looking for. + - wow, yes, that is so interesting. I never considered the + question of desire and emacs until your talk, and it was + definitely one of the most interesting parts! + In my work I was also mostly interested in Freud (the role of + 'technique' in psychoanalysis) and also Foucault's later + lectures on hermeneutics of the self/technologies of the self. + The angle of 'desire' in relation to personal + configuration/design was so interesting to me and like an + 'aha' moment. I'll definitely be thinking about it more! + Thank you so much again for the talk and all the responses! + - A: Thank you too, and hope we'll be in touch! + - Yes :) enjoy the rest of the conference! + - A: Likewise :) +- Q8: What was that Crichton quote? That was neat! (From the + references - Crichton, M. (1983). *Electronic life*. New York: + Knopf.) + - A: Thank you - I hope that general computing will have its day! +- Q9: Greta, you seem to be an academic researcher. Any of your + publications or other good references on this topic that you can + share/link here? +- Here are two: +- <https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2021.1962706> A song of teaching + with free software in the Anthropocene +- <https://10.1007/s42438-020-00188-3> The odyssey of pedagogies of + technoscientific literacies + +**Links and other notes:** + +- Design Pattern: macro solution; human-centered +- Emacs is a design pattern for learning. +- Why do we care about design patterns? +- Emacs as a mental map. +- Everyone's Emacs is their own. +- The development of the Emacs communitiy is similar to the [free] + core of Emacs devlopment. + +IRC: + +- this paper is relevant to exploring the space of design patterns: https://www.aaai.org/Papers/Workshops/1998/WS-98-08/WS98-08-024.pdf it's old and a little cryptic, but a good paper. it's "Recommender Systems for Problem Solving Environments" - greta: Thanks for that link! - if I may ask, what's the little toy figure in the background, looks nice :D - A wooden (fake) Transformer :) - do you think emacs could have implemented with this design pattern, but in another programming language? - + - Emacs Lisp as a dialect of Lisp shares its philosophical qualities. I often think about what Norvig wrote about Lisp back in the day, e.g. <https://www.norvig.com/lisp_talk_final.htm>, and while there are some people who feel strongly that Lisp's time is passed, I think that Emacs shows that it is the opposite: that we haven't fully taken advantage of Lisp's potential. Another example would be what Rick Hickey has done with Clojure, and recommend his talk Are We There Yet, <https://github.com/matthiasn/talk-transcripts/blob/master/Hickey_Rich/AreWeThereYet.md>. + Feedback: - That's a great point about the sketches, and why Emacs graphical improvements are important. |