| The comments on this thread have been more interesting than the article. I think the common theme is a push to innovate and take the next step in computer systems. If we scan this thread we could come up with a list of issues/problems with UNIX. Human inclination is to instantly look for each solution as each problem presents itself. Eg. "Text as an interface is unstructured" -> "Use other formats". The end result becomes a lot of feature creep, adding layers over the OS to hide the usability issues of the past. Then, a new user comes along and wonders, "How did it all get so messy?" The ideation-style approach to innovation is NOT to leap straight to solutions. Avoid analyzing the problems immediately. Don't criticize other people's existing thoughts. Instead we use our creativity to add to the list of problems. We build it up even more. Add tangential issues that may be not just UNIX related problems. Add future issues. Add past issues. You keep adding until you exhaust all the avenues. You don't want to block your thoughts or anyone else's. If anything, the previous problem someone raises should inspire your next one. Once you have drained out all the issues and you can't squeeze out any more complaints, then you can take a step back and look at all the problems as a whole. You group them into categories that have common themes. You try to generalize and re-express them in vaguer terms. After you have your themes, you can think about making a list of solutions. Again you don't want to be critical about the feasibility of a solution. You just want to build a list of different solutions. Each solution should inspire a new different solution. There are mental exercises that you can do to inspire tangential thoughts - word games etc. When you have a giant list of solutions, then you categorize again. Those categories are the start point to building something innovative. The alternative is just another iteration of what already exists. My own thoughts on this are that I seem to need "power-user" abilities way too much. My field is actually Hardware. Something is wrong if I am jumping through a lot of hoops outside of my specialty just to get work done. It's not just UNIX either. My friends and family often call on me to handle their Windows or Mac issues because I am the closest thing to an expert they know. They shouldn't have to. |