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and advance Doug Englebart's dream to augment human intellect, so we might understand and
resolve the world's seemingly insoluble problems. In the eulogy, Ted Nelson makes clear the
heights of their ambition and their depth of disappointment.
I used to have a high view of human potential. But no one ever had such a soaring view of human poten-
tial as Douglas Carl Engelbart - and he gave us wings to soar with him, though his mind flew on ahead,
where few could seeā€¦And here we twiddle in a world of computer glitz, as the winds rise, and the seas
rise, and the debts rise, and the terrorists rise, and the nukes tick.
Now I appreciate Ted's perspective, and I find his honesty refreshing, but I choose the confusion
of hope over the clarity of despair. I don't see the success of Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think
as a condemnation of human nature. The simple solution won because most people are too busy
thinking to think about interface design and information structure. We're not too lazy to play
Englebart's violin lxviii but are simply preoccupied with our own ways of making music. And
while civilization may be headed for collapse, it's not too late for course correction. That's why I
care about the Web. It's not only a mirror but a lever as well. And while today's Web is more ter-
rible than ever imagined, it's also more amazing.
Ted Nelson invokes our past sense of possibility and asks us to imagine the Web that might
have been if only we'd traveled a different road. It's not a bad way to spend time, but only if we
dedicate ourselves to the divergent, forking paths ahead, because it's what we do next that
makes all the difference.
Links
The core feature of the Web is the link. Likes and keywords are important too, but social and
search at scale would fail without links. It's the links that make a web, yet we spend our time on
interfaces, designing the surface without analyzing the structure. This is a shame. The richness
and diversity of link types is rising, but to benefit we must pay attention.
Initially, we fixed on navigation, and our maps and paths remain vital for mobile and cross-
channel design. We use links to forge paths for users. They serve as transparent tools for people
who are too busy doing something to pay attention to what they're doing. The link is like a pen-
cil or a hammer. In the words of Martin Heidegger, each tool is invisible, implicit, and ready-to-
hand . But users do get stuck, so we use links to make maps as well. Our menus and taxonomies
are visible, explicit, and present-at-hand . They demand our attention in return for understanding.
This is almost always not a bad deal.
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