A sporadically updated log of what I'm currently interested in and focused on. More stable than a twitter feed and less permanent then the

page. Now pages are a

growing thing.

Make one for yourself!

August 2021

With lockdown easing in London I've spent most of summer outside throwing tennis balls around in the park, rather than sitting in front of screens writing words. It's been a good break, but I've missed researching. The British winter will descend again soon and I'll be back inside tending to the digital garden.

We finally launched

after 2 years of work. It's an interactive book that teaches JavaScript through visual mental models. Created with

Dan Abramov

and the team at egghead.

I've become enamoured with

and

End-user Programming

over the last 6 months. The

Future of Coding

community and

Gordon Brandon

's newsletter have been particularly valuable hubs of insight.

Chatted to a few podcast folks;

1. Adam Wiggins and Mark McGranaghan on
   Metamuse
   about visual programming.
2. Scott Francis and Evan Payne on
   Frontend Heroes
   about a little bit of everything

Currently preparing a talk for two conferences in October;

in Amsterdam and

React Advanced

here in London. On various ways to visualise React, why visual representations work so well, the pros / cons / wicked historical problems of adding graphical and spatial affordances to programming interfaces, and why we should keep trying despite the challenges.

---

September 2020

Digging into the work of

and reading the literature around

embodied cognition

. I've been a long time fan of

George Lakoff

so much of it us familiar. Tverksy's new book

Mind in Motion

builds off many of the same themes.

Delaying a part-time Masters degree in

at UCL until next year when we'll hopefully be less Covid-y

Reading

by Nadia Eghbal

Exploring the connections between technology and magic through the writings of

. Specifically enjoyed the paper

The Technology of Enchantment and the Enchantment of Technology

Playing

– A game that challenges players to collaboratively and competitively describe objects from a range of alternative futures.