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Cory Doctorow

Technology can't be understood separately from technology *users*. This is the key insight in Donald Norman's 2004 book *Emotional Design*, which argued that the ground state of all technology is broken, and the overarching task of tech users is to troubleshoot the things they use:

pluralistic.net/2020/04/29/ban

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20 Oct 2022 at 15:53 | Open on mamot.fr
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Cory Doctorow replied to Cory

Troubleshooting is both an art and a science: it requires both a methodical approach and creative leaps. The great crisis of troubleshooting is that the more frustrated and angry you are, the harder it is to be methodical *or* creative. Anger turns attention into a narrow tunnel of brittle movements and thinking.

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20 Oct 2022 at 15:53 | Open on mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow replied to Cory

In *Emotional Design*, Norman argues that technology should be *beautiful* and *charming*, because when you *like* a technology that has stopped working, you are able to troubleshoot it in an expansive, creative, way. *Emotional Design* was not merely remarkable for what it said, but for who said it.

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20 Oct 2022 at 15:53 | Open on mamot.fr
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