Inspiring or distracting?

Gradually I can tell better which kind of tools do help (me) thinking and which do not.

In a previous post I contrasted the ‘sovereign-posture’ app with the ‘clerk’ that Engelbart envisioned, i.e., the tool that helped augmenting the human intellect. Apps that push themselves into the foreground, seem more patronizing than helpful to me.

Now there are also applications that come with plenty of endowment (provisions/ equipment/ ‘furnishings’?), and some fittings suggest themselves as proposals/ prototypes (templates/ ‘sand moulds’?) for our thought contents.

Image background adapted from Sand patterns in the dunes CC-BY-NC by Flickr user jennymackness

One vendor describes this in their video as follows:

“[The app] looks over your shoulder and offers to help” (here at 10:01)

Maybe for some users, such offers may function as an idea generator or a creative muse. For others (like me) they do not work; for users who know distraction-free software, such offers will even appear as obstruction and patronization.

Typically, software won’t accommodate both sorts of users. So, instead of just going ahead, I am often required to find or create a type (sand mould?) for my stuff. This classification, however, is exactly the paralyzing problem of premature pigeon-holing that prevents to see the gradually emerging connections — which is the main goal of our Condensr.