Summary of August, 2003
The major themes of August, 2003 were constrained universes of expression, dramaturgy, children, and semiotics—most of them in combination with software development.
A post from August 7 received some linkage. It was about how I tried to recall an idea that had struck me on the way to work.
I continued thinking about constrained universes (or rather, they continued to haunt me):
- Inventing or reusing universes (of August 9)
- Inventing universes (of August 12)
- Constrained universes and software development (of August 13)
- Constrained universes & SW development (cont’d) (of August 13)
- On how harmonics define many of the constraints of a universe (of August 25)
- On movies as constrained universes (of August 28)
- Note on importance of knowing the constraints of the universe (of August 29)
A favorite line of thought is the similarities between storytelling or dramaturgy and software architecture. In a way, the internals of a piece of software is a story about its problem domain, and its dramaturgy is the architecture.
See the following posts:
- Quotes from an article on the history of Hollywood dramaturgy (of August 10)
- Dramaturgy and software development (of August 11)
Another much-linked post this month was one titled Controlling your sleep from August 21, about how it’s possible to set yourself to wake up at a particular time, with stunning accuracy. Several people said they had the same experience.
Being a parent is an opportunity to observe many things about human behavior in a pure form. This is the big part of the cliché of how children can teach us adults important things.
See these posts:
- On memories from before you could speak (of August 25)
- Bilingual children (of August 26)
- On the natural inclination to expose one’s offspring to feedback (of August 27)
- On nuances in early speech (of August 27)
I was recommended to take a look at semiotics, as it probably was relevant for my ideas about constrained universes of expression. So I did, but I didn’t realize how relevant it was until several weeks later.
See these posts:
- Quotes from Challis Hodge’s primer for designers (of August 29)
- A quote from Daniel Chandler’s Semiotics for Beginners (of August 30)
- More quotes from Chandler’s book (of August 30)
- Bricolage (more quotes; of August 31)
- Another quote from Chandler’s book (of August 31)