Mind on the Rocks

One of my 2007 New Year's resolutions is to place a greater emphasis on reading for my profession and less on leisure. This of course, turns out to be easier said than done. Other than the subject matter being "dull", it takes much much longer to finish a work-related book than one that's completely to one's fancy. That said, I am nonetheless going to push on with this effort. Difficult tasks build character :)

The Elements of Friendly Software Design by Paul Heckle

I am usually turned off by such a book title and a publishing date of 1994. The world has changed over numerous times for the past decade. Had it not for my boss, I would never have picked it up myself, and glad I indeed was... These days people throw UCD-related terms around like they were raisins to top your salad. Paul Heckle instead, focuses on designing software to be a communication craft, much to the same communicative effects of Disney cartoons, movies, architecture and paintings. It gave me a fresh perspective on the the film The Birth of Nation, which I totally dreaded when I was forced to watch it in its entirety and write an essay about its revolutionary techniques. Once again I realized that one cannot see the future if the past is not well understood. The history of the Zoomrack and Apple's HyperCard was fascinating to read and both were excellent, cohesive examples of good use of mental models. Its bibliography was long and eye-opening as I now find the success of my profession has much to do and much to learn from art, architecture and film.

Elements of Style (Illustrated) by William Strunk Jr., E.B. White, and Maira Kalman

What can I say? A classic.

Currently working on:
Visual Function: An Introduction to Information Design by Paul Mijksenaar

Visual Thinking by Rudolf Arnheim

This book is SO dense and so hard to crack. The long-gone syndrome of understanding every word but not the passage often experienced in my school years has now returned.

For Leisure
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond

It's one thing to be bombarded on a daily basis about global warming and other human impact that's increasingly threatening the livelihood of our planet; it's yet another to read grave accounts of six ancient societies that have vanished due to some societal collapse and total eco-meltdown caused primarily by its inhabitants. The chapter on China is especially chilling. I am aware of the looming danger of depletion of natural resources and capitalists' greedy exploitation of people in less developed parts of the world, yet these ideas remain afloat in the back of my mind. I don't have the extensive knowledge and research framework to ground them and have a clear picture of how these phenomena can evolve in the future. Diamond's book, like the missing pieces of a puzzle, connects these dots, traces and extends the complete story of a single, seemingly coincidental occurrence. When I get a chance to visit Northern Europe I'd be sure to stop at one of the Inuit preservation museums to check out the highly advanced (back then) kayak making technologies and artifacts.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith