There is this problem with software: “The User Has No Agency.” (Among many others of course;) This problem has made all sources of simple yet agency based work great. One for example is Excel; Spreadsheets are perhaps the worst; But they are regarded as the most used programming systems in the world.
This is also true for Notion; I by no means wish to express I do not like these systems; They have been quite the revolution. What I mean to say is that yet in the end they are not enough for making real tools.
For true agency the human has to be given some agency to work on what ==per== wishes to work on; and then be able to edit the software as it goes.
Here I get to the work of Maestro Victor. Dynamicland is perhaps the only and the most brilliant thing going on in this respect. Whatever I do; my path goes back here to this work.
Yet I think that there are other things to think about as well. Say: How is one expected to do something that is about archiving huge sums of information such such that they can interact as programs? Sadly I have no access to the Dynamicland; But I think I can contribute something in here.
![[a drawing of a browser window showing an image of a flower with a dashed bounding box around some lines of text, with an arrow pointing from the bounding box to the explanatory text below]
The Archive needs a software system that takes the position array (polygon) on where the texts are; and then generate a map (HTML Image map) where the user can hover on image text and have it rendered in computer text.](/photographs/thoughts/2024/12/21/on-app.webp)
Thought: ARCHIVVM∙MAGNVM With Image Maps
You can’t let ambition get too far ahead of opportunity. I’ve seen a lot of people who had their sights set on a particular job or project, but the opportunity to actually get that thing was so slim. Their focus on the small thing in the distance became a problem. They grew impatient with where they were. They didn’t tend enough to the responsibilities they did have, because they were longing so much for something else, and so their ambition became counterproductive. It’s important to know how to find the balance—do the job you have well; be patient; look for opportunities to pitch in and expand and grow; and make yourself one of the people, through attitude and energy and focus, that your bosses feel they have to turn to when an opportunity arises.
The dynamics between a CEO and the next person in line for his or her job are often fraught, though. We all want to believe were irreplaceable. The trick is to be self-aware enough that you don’t cling to the notion that you are the only person who can do this job. At its essence, good leadership isn’t about being indispensable; it’s about helping others be prepared to possibly step into your shoes- giving them access to your own decision making, identifying the skills they need to develop and helping them improve […]
Meeting after meeting was either canceled, rescheduled, or abbreviated, and soon every top executive at Disney was whispering behind his back about what a disaster he was. Managing your own time and respecting others’ time is one of the most vital things to do as a manager, and he was horrendous at it.