Web of Ideas: Design with Paul Graham
David Weinberger’s Web of Ideas series continues tonight with a talk about design with Paul Graham. I didn’t know much about Paul Graham before learning about this event, but apparently Paul has qutie a following in Cambridge. The room is full of people who know who he is. I’m here to learn.
reddit keeps coming up in the discussion (like the news of them being bought by CondeNet), but the guys aren’t here.
David used the analogy of a hammer from Martin Heidegger. If a hammer is really bad or really good, we’ll notice. If it is just a hammer, we may not notice anything about it. Are libraries like that? If a library is really bad or really good, people will speak up, but libraries in the middle get little to no recognition?
David and Paul keep refering to the essay Taste for Makers. In it, Paul provides some ideas about what makes good design.
They spent some time talking about some paintings and architecture and what makes them good or bad.
Ways to participate from afar are listed on Berkman’s site.
Addendum: As I was cleaning off some of that trackback spam plaque, I came across a post titled Paul Graham and I thought, “Oh, gee, when did I write that?” Well, I didn’t. Kim posted a link to some of Paul’s essays while I was on hiatus. Guess I should read my blog more …
