[switchbak]

Man so much of this thread is full of such high minded philosophizing, it's like we're debating wine instead of talking about interfaces for doing things.

Like, maybe I just want to make an interface to configure my homemade espresso dohickey, do I have to wear a turtleneck and read Christopher Alexander now? I just wanted a couple buttons and some sliders.

We don't all have to be experts in everything, some people just need a means to an end, and that's ok. I won't like the wave of slop that's coming, but the antidote certainly isn't this.

[SiempreViernes]

Why do you want sliders when a config file would do the same just fine?

It's true that design theory writing is annoyingly verbose and intangible, but that doesn't make it wrong. Give someone a concrete language spec and they will not really know how it feels to use the language, and even once they do experience its use they will not be able to explain that feeling using the language spec. Invariably the language will tend to become intangible and likely very verbose.

But to answer your question: no, it's of course perfectly serviceable to just copy the interface others have created, and if the needs aren't exactly the same you can just put up with the inevitable discomfort from where the original doesn't translate into the copy.

[dwb]

Don’t be so anti-intellectual, there’s enough of that around. A simple problem is going to have a small set of simple design solutions; the philosophising readily admits that. Nothing’s getting in your way.

[switchbak]

I’m not being anti-intellectual, I’m being anti-elitist and anti-obfuscation.

It’s not the science and intellect I take issue with, engineering has plenty of that. It’s the art-adjacent navel gazing post modern bullshit I don’t like.

[dwb]

Well I think that art is good, thinking about design is good, that using a couple of terms that aren’t immediately clear to you isn’t “obfuscation”, and that postmodernism can be a useful analytical lens. Seeing the world only through science and engineering (as useful as they can be when applied well) is cold, dead, and sad.

[switchbak]

Well, I think that typically 90% of engineering is bullshit, that 90% of everything is almost always bullshit, and that 90% of the high minded nonsense you're talking about can be tossed with no loss whatsoever.

The other 10% of the design world? Actual useful, and can help create truly better things. And typically offered honestly because there really is something of substance being shared. To be clear: there can be tremendous value in the design world.

And nice false dichotomy there - if someone disagrees with the snooty extravagances of the design world, then they only care about science and engineering. That is not what I said, and your twisting of my statements is either a shallow read or disingenuous.

[dwb]

I can only read as deep as what is written. I have a low opinion of anyone who dismisses “snooty extravagances” of any field – it’s incurious and disrespectful. Either admit you don’t know enough to engage, or read up and engage on the substance.