Categories - Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything - page 50

Over time, lest we're careful, our bodyminds grow inflexible. We imagine the impossible less
and less until we can't. Paul Graham says entrepreneurs must be cheeky, always believing
there's a better way. Similarly, information architects must be contrarians, always re-framing
ideas and beliefs in a different way. Of course, Richard Saul Wurman, the infamous architect of
“information architect” would beg to disagree.
I rather worship the space between things, the silence between good friends, the time between the notes
of music, the break time during a conference, the space between buildings, negative space…It's the way I
approach everything. I look for a solution which has a valid oppositeness. Not a 'different way' of look-
ing at things, but an opposite way. xlix
In fact, Mr. Wurman is so oppositional, he's easy to ignore. His own wife lovingly described his
self-image as “a little piece of shit at the center of the universe.” l But Dan Klyn is right. We must
listen to our Dutch uncles. li It's the folks who challenge social norms that have the most interest-
ing things to say. After all, only a contrarian would single-handedly transform the American In-
stitute of Architects 1976 national convention into a conversation about “the architecture of in-
formation.”
That's why I've chosen to call myself an Information Architect. I don't mean a bricks and mortar archi-
tect. I mean architect as used in the words architect of foreign policy . I mean architect as in the creating of
systemic, structural, and orderly principles to make something work - the thoughtful making of either ar-
tifact, or idea, or policy that informs because it is clear. l ii
Since that event, the borders of our practice have shifted like sandbars. We're drawn to architec-
ture, information, planning, meaning - it seems the centre cannot hold. But that's the strength of
our discipline, not a fault. We define and reframe. We destroy and rebuild. The center of inform-
ation architecture is cognition. In re-re-framing, we understand.
One of Wurman's most repeated wisdoms is: “The ways of organizing information are finite. It
can only be organized by location, alphabet, time, category, or hierarchy.” liii At first the last was
continuum, but he changed it to make LATCH. And, in that swap, we see his scheme is arbit-
rary. The acronym is catchy, but it's the opposite of right. The ways of organizing information
are infinite. As uncle Buddha once said, put no head above your own, because even Dutch
uncles are wrong.
To build strength and flexibility, we should open our minds to people and ideas we don't like,
and pick fights with those we do. For instance, Stewart Brand's concept of pace layering gets a
lot of love. He argues that in complex systems, it's vital that distinct layers can change at differ-
ing rates. The combination of fast and slow creates resilience. Fast learns, slow remembers. Fast
gets our attention. Slow has all the power. liv