I don’t really care about details. This is something that differentiates me from most engineers: we, engineers, have the reputation to be detail-oriented.
It’s not that details are not important. In User Interface development, details are extremely important.
It’s not that details are never cool; sometimes there can be very cool details.
It’s just that I like big picture ideas so much. I am a sucker for big ideas, major trends, the last theory on the origin of the universe or the meaning of consciousness.
Luckily, there is a need for people like me: the Internet is full of details and too often folks are missing the big picture, missing the forest for the trees.
Missing the Big Picture
How often have you tried to learn about a new subject. You read an article or open a book that was supposed to introduce you to the basics of that subject, but just left you more puzzled than before. It basically explained a few important points but didn’t answer the most pressing questions you had. And it added more questions than you didn’t have.
AHA! Experiences
This is where this blog comes in. It tries to answer the first 10 big questions that you may have about a subject.
These often are the answers to the questions that puzzled me while I was learning User Interface Development. Sometimes it took me a few hours to figure out that stuff, sometimes it took me several months. Always leaving me with the same feeling: ”If only someone had told me this at the beginning”.
The right model in your mind
For most abstract domains: calculus, quantum physics, chess or software engineering, the trick for learning is to get an accurate model (or a set of models) on how things really work.
The goal here is to facilitate this building of a model in your brain: to give you the shortcuts to build these models quickly.
AHA! Experiences
One of the great thrills in my life comes when I figure out something new. It really doesn’t matter if I am the first one to discover it or if millions of people have figured it out already. This is the thrill that we must have when we take our first steps, the thrill of Helen Keller figuring out that everything has a name, the thrill of the inventors.
This blog is very much about you getting that thrill. If while you browse through this blog, you think just once “This is interesting, I didn’t know that” or “now I get it!”, I’ll have achieved my goal.
On to the blog
So hopefully, you’ll have a good time reading my blog. If you’ve got other questions, critics, feedback, suggestions, do not hesitate to leave a comment. I’ll try to address them as time permits.