Jackie Danicki

I’ve got a post on the ass-backwards attitude of state officials towards value sharing on Samizdata (cross-posted to the Engagement Alliance).

Speaking of the EA, Hillary Johnson has written a fantastic piece on the virtues of dumb design over there:

To trot out an analogy, look at the propagation of the automobile in our culture. Most of us are taught to drive casually, by friends and family. The rules of the road are clear, the design and operation standards cross-platform are virtually invisible, and while there is room for a “professional” class of driving instructions and professional drivers, this isn’t a barrier to any one individual’s participation in the autosphere. Now, imagine if certain automotive snobs had insisted that the auto industry limit itself to creating twitchy cars that could only operate on the Bonneville Salt Flats or an indy track, and commercial vehicles so complicated to operate that only “professionals” or true enthusiasts could own cars, and then only as a business.

Now, taking that analogy a step further,conjure an image of all of the technologies in your daily life–phone, blender, dvd player, washing machine–imagine having to invest hours, days or weeks in learning not to push a button, but to code the functionality of each of these items (you probably have unfond memories of doing exactly that with a VCR once upon a time). The idea is absurd. Do you need to live in a world where knowing how to microwave popcorn makes you “cool”?

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