Hypertext will change the way people think
Saturday, April 23, 2005I read this today on Adaptive Path, Janice Fraser : It's a Whole New Internet and had one of those 'AHA!' moments. It's all about people who have grown up with hypertext or have embraced it and people who haven't.
"I’m fairly sure I got the job because I told Hugh Dubberly, then creative director, that I believed hypertext would change the way people think — that by becoming more aware of our non-linear thought patterns, we would begin to comprehend the complex nature of understanding."
At work the national director actually said he doubted the value of connecting information. So we're forced to maintain ilands of data at work and sometimes management actively prevents aggregation. Of course the staff all think it's mad.
My boss had a useful theory: the national director doesn't use the internet much but the staff do. So we have a generation gap between those who take for granted the value of aggregated information and those who just don't understand it.
It's true, hypertext has changed the way we think. One of the young architects has recently produced a series of 3d walkthroughs for a project that has impressed the pants off the client. He is a new employee. One of the CAD experts found him on an online 3D design forum and offered him the job.
Connections, it's all about the connections. And to think some employers would have actively prevented our CAD guy from participating on web forums because they see it as 'time wasting'.
No comments yet