# Living in Information
Author:: Jorge Arango
## *Highlights*
> Roman architect Vitruvius described three principles: “durability, convenience, and beauty.” The International Standards Organization (ISO) echoes Vitruvius, mandating software that is “effective, efficient, and engaging.” Architect Louis Sullivan proclaimed, “form ever follows function”—while Frog founder and Apple product designer Hartmut Esslinger quipped, “form follows emotion.” ([Location 94](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=94))
> Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who hired Frog early, noted, “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.” ([Location 97](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=97))
> I’ve been designing software (mostly websites and apps) professionally for almost 25 years, and as a hobby for at least a decade before that. I was educated as an architect, and worked as one for a year before I left architecture to dedicate myself fully to designing information environments. So my approach to user interface design is informed by placemaking. As you’ll see, there is much that software designers can learn from architecture. ([Location 190](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=190))
### CHAPTER 1 Environments
> Whether they be websites on your notebook computer, apps on your phone, or “conversations” with the “smart” cylinder on your mantelpiece, these environments are where you catch up with your friends, work, study, find a romantic partner, bank, shop, and undertake a whole host of other activities that our forebears did in physical space. Because they are composed primarily of information—words and images on screens—we refer to them as information environments. ([Location 223](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=223))
> So places serve on two levels: they perform physical functions and symbolic ones. Both are essential to healthy societies. Physically, they shelter us and provide us with contexts in which we can effectively perform our activities, including the secondary, but no less important, activity of socializing. Symbolically, they embody and catalyze our cultural identities at the local, national, or global level; in other words, they ground us. On both levels, places convey information. ([Location 283](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=283))
> You can think of information as anything that helps reduce uncertainty so that you can make better predictions about outcomes. ([Location 321](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=321))
> Information environments create contexts that influence our behavior and actions. ([Location 378](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=378))
> The writer and designer Edwin Schlossberg said, “The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.”6 I think the skill of designing—especially designing software—is creating contexts in which other people can work, learn, play, organize, bank, shop, gossip, and find great gelato. ([Location 379](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=379))
### CHAPTER 2 Context
> The environment in such a place offers cues that tell you what you can and can’t do there. These cues are called affordances, a concept introduced by psychologist J. J. Gibson in the 1960s.3 Gibson and his collaborator and wife Eleanor were interested in how organisms sense their environments. He coined the word affordance to describe how elements of an environment communicate the possibilities for action they afford to organisms that are capable of undertaking such actions. For example, to a being with opposable thumbs, a tree branch affords grasping. ([Location 506](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=506))
> affordances are not inherent characteristics of objects. They only pertain to the relationship between an object and an agent in the environment. ([Location 519](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=519))
> The success of the design depends on whether or not it supports the goals its users have for the sort of place it creates. ([Location 609](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=609))
### CHAPTER 3 Incentives
> There are many ways to incentivize people. Let’s examine three of them: • Remunerative incentives • Social incentives • Coercive incentives ([Location 660](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=660))
> For incentives to influence your behavior, you must have the freedom and ability to act in some ways and not others. If you can’t effectively choose one course of action over another, you can’t be incentivized. ([Location 683](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=683))
> Incentives imply an unequal relationship between parties. The party that sets the incentive holds some degree of power over the party being incentivized. ([Location 695](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=695))
> In other words, having a stable identity within a community is a key component for social incentives to be effective. ([Location 711](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=711))
> When identity can be fluid, people are less motivated by social incentives. In Twitter’s information environment, for example, participants can be anonymous and create or eliminate accounts on a whim. In such environments, people are shielded from the long-term social implications of their behavior, and do not face coercive (punitive) or moral/social incentives for their negative actions. Anonymity affords them impunity for behavior that wouldn’t be tolerated in physical environments. ([Location 714](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=714))
> In this case, transparency means easy access to the information necessary for any one individual to know how he or she is doing with regard to the incentives he or she is being measured by. ([Location 724](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=724))
### CHAPTER 4 Engagement
> In the late 1990s, researchers working at Xerox’s PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) noticed similarities between the way people search for information and the way that animals forage for food. The theory they developed, called information foraging, has been influential in the history of user interface design. The basis of these theories is the idea that our ability to focus our attention developed as a survival mechanism, which made it possible for our ancestors to find food in a complex environment while avoiding getting killed. ([Location 837](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=837))
> Understanding how our attentional mechanisms work helps us design environments that allow us to achieve our goals more by cutting down on distractions. ([Location 844](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=844))
> When we focus intensely on something or someone, we say we are paying attention to it. This metaphor suggests that we think of our attention as a sort of resource or currency that we spend at will. However, this idea of attention-as-currency is not accurate, since we can’t save our attention for later expenditure. The current moment is all we have, and once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. If we’re to think of attention as a resource, it should be as one that is nonrenewable. Your attention is one of your most precious possessions—one you should zealously guard from squandering. ([Location 866](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=866))
> It’s worth noting here that this is not a black-and-white issue; not all advertising-based information environments are necessarily “bad” for us. It comes down to what we want to use the place for, and making sure our goals and the goals of the people operating the environment are in alignment. For example, I have fewer issues with a search engine, such as Google, using an advertising-based business model. This is because I use the search engine to find stuff. Since the advertiser’s goal is get me to buy their wares (and this requires that I find them), our goals are more closely aligned than if I were using the place to chat with my friends. ([Location 1002](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1002))
### CHAPTER 5 Technology
> Innovation in information technology happens very fast, so I write these words knowing that this chapter of the book will age less gracefully than the rest. But if we aim to create information environments that stand the test of time, we need to understand the impact that technologies have on the form and capabilities of these environments and their ability to shape our attention. Looking at the technologies that promise the most change in how we relate to information is a good place to start. In this chapter, we will look at four such technologies. ([Location 1053](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1053))
#### Reframing Reality
> AR and VR blur the lines between digital information environments and physical environments. Instead of being something you access within the confines of a computer display, digital information becomes an integral part of your experience in the world. (In the case of VR, it becomes your experience of the world altogether.) Having a constant layer of information meaningfully overlaid over the “real world” is still the stuff of science fiction, but we’re not far from achieving something close to ([Location 1083](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1083))
#### Machines That Decide for Us
> These systems don’t need to mimic human interactions (like the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey) in order to be useful. In fact, you may not even be aware of their work behind-the-scenes. ([Location 1109](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1109))
#### Machines That Speak Our Language
> Early computers required that their users communicate with them by typing arcane commands into a text-based command line. The next dominant paradigm, graphical user interfaces (GUIs) such as the ones used by Apple’s Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, allowed users to interact with computers by pointing at menus and icons. Current touchscreen-based smartphones and tablets offer yet another paradigm: touchscreens that enable users to (literally) reach out and manipulate information with their fingers. As advanced and “learnable” as these interfaces are, they still require more thinking than regular conversation does. Interacting with other people by talking is something our species has done for much longer than we’ve had computers. Speech is our universal interface to our social world. ([Location 1142](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1142))
#### Connected Things Everywhere
> A subcategory of these “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices is what is often called “wearable” computers. ([Location 1175](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1175))
#### Disintermediating Trust
> The blockchain functions like an open—yet anonymized and encrypted—ledger that makes it easy for anyone to consult whether we’re good for the promises we make when we transact with each other. While this capability by itself has the potential to change how much of the world works, it doesn’t stop there. There’s nothing inherent in the technology to limit it to financial dealings; any transaction between two or more parties can be registered as part of a blockchain. As a result, it can replace intermediaries in all sorts of situations that currently call for establishing relationships of trust where none exist. ([Location 1216](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1216))
### CHAPTER 6 Architecture
> As with physical environments, such as buildings and towns, information environments must be designed to address particular needs. Although the design of software is relatively new, the design of environments is not. People have been creating buildings and towns for centuries. The field of design that has focused on designing environments is architecture. In this chapter, we will examine the design of information environments as a form of architecture. ([Location 1277](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1277))
> When many people think of design, they think of aesthetics: how something “looks and feels.” They may sense something has “good design” because it stands out from among similar products because of the way it looks. This is a misunderstanding. Design is not a characteristic of things; it’s a process by which things are made. It’s more of a verb than a noun. When we’re creating something new, design allows us to simulate possible solutions so that we can experience them without incurring the costs of building the final product. We do this by understanding the context the thing we’re designing will address (including the needs and expectations of the people who will use it) and producing models of varying fidelity that allow us to envision and test alternatives. For any one challenge, there are many possible ways forward. Design allows us to explore and refine the ones that best serve the needs of the project. Design is how we make possibilities tangible. These needs are expressed as requirements, which can be overt or tacit. ([Location 1282](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1282))
> Architecture informs our self-identity and culture more than any other design discipline. This is because the output of architecture revolves around the contexts in which much of our lives play out. ([Location 1319](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1319))
> Over the centuries, architects have developed various design principles that can guide us in the pursuit of these goals. Let’s examine a few of them. ([Location 1334](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1334))
#### Function
#### Ergonomics
#### Understandability
> Elements in the environment must not only be usable by people, but they must also be understood to be usable. The door “reads” as an opening in the wall; it says, “passage here!” Architects have long played with the configuration of elements to communicate particular messages and influence behavior. ([Location 1345](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1345))
#### Quality
#### Coherence
> every part of the composition contributes to the coherence of the whole. Most architects strive for gestalt: ensuring elements “carry their weight” conceptually toward a sense of wholeness in the place. ([Location 1360](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1360))
#### Fit
> Architects strive for what Christopher Alexander called “good fit”: a tight relationship between the form, or product, we have created, and the context it was created for, ([Location 1364](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1364))
#### Resilience
#### Mental Models
> Eventually, you figured out the “lay of the land” and could move around with ease, without having to think about it. How did you do this? You did it by developing a mental model of the environment. ([Location 1377](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1377))
> There is an emergent design discipline that does for information environments what architecture does for physical environments. It’s called information architecture. ([Location 1389](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1389))
#### The Architecture of Information
> Information architecture (IA) is the area of practice and field of study that concerns itself with the design of information environments. IA aims to make information easier for people to find and understand. As with (physical) architecture, this calls for bringing a particular order to the elements that comprise the environment. ([Location 1391](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1391))
> As Wurman put it, “You only understand information relative to what you already understand.”4 ([Location 1414](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1414))
> It’s time we recognize that these digital things we’re making are the places where many of our most important social interactions are happening, and start designing them accordingly. These things need architecture. ([Location 1449](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1449))
### CHAPTER 7 Structure
> There are various ways to organize the parts. For example, many organizations are arranged in a hierarchy, as is often the case of marketing reporting to sales. Hierarchies are characterized by one-to-many relationships between the parts, and can be visualized as trees, with the highest-ranking element in the structure being the equivalent of the trunk supporting various levels of branches and leaves below it. ([Location 1490](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1490))
> Another common structural arrangement is the network. In a network, any part can have a relationship with any other part. While not very common in organizations, there have been some experiments in networked corporate structures that allow teams to self-organize. (The foremost example, online shoe retailer Zappos, is based on a model called holacracy that aims to empower its constituent parts to define themselves and their relationships with other parts on an ad-hoc basis.1) ([Location 1494](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1494))
> A third way of organizing elements is a lattice: an arrangement in which parts have formal relationships with other parts, which are somehow adjacent to them. Unlike a hierarchy, whose relationships are top-down, relationships in a lattice can be established “sideways” between peer elements. Unlike networked arrangements, relationships in a lattice are not entirely arbitrary; they implement a particular pattern. In companies, this most often manifests itself as “matrixed” arrangements in which groups have both a top-down managerial structure and horizontal responsibilities and relationships with peer teams. ([Location 1498](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1498))
#### How We Experience Structure
##### Navigation and Labeling
##### Distinctions
> The key to using language effectively in navigation and labeling systems is to create distinctions in the user’s mind. The user won’t be able to create a mental model of the place if all of its parts sound similar. To illustrate: if you see a link labeled “log in,” you will immediately assume that the environment implements a distinction between public (logged out) and private (logged in) spaces. The difference between these is clear in your mind, and the use of the words in and out reinforces it. The ways that you divide and label the parts that make up an information environment tell a lot about what that information environment is for and what you can expect to do there. ([Location 1593](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1593))
> Note that this navigation system doesn’t need to include the word “yoga” in it. By using terms from the technical vocabulary of the semantic environment of yoga (“studio,” “classes,” “poses,” etc.), your mind starts thinking in that context. There is a sense of conceptual coherence and unity to these terms and icons (and even the choice of the color purple) that serve to reinforce the identity and purpose of the whole, even while presenting distinctions between its constituent parts. ([Location 1608](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1608))
> Metaphors ([Location 1612](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1612))
#### Thinking More Structurally
> Thus, thinking structurally requires considering the parts that will make up the environment simultaneously with the whole those parts create. The two are interrelated in ways that make them impossible to separate. Aligning the distinctions and relationships between these parts with the needs and expectations of users can create an environment that empowers them. Doing so makes the environment more understandable, since the people using it can relate to the way it’s organized, and it also makes it possible for them to focus their attention on completing the tasks they are there to do. Conversely, structural distinctions can also be used to create environments that are at odds with the needs and expectations of the people who use them. This not only makes the environment more difficult to navigate, but it can also create environments that can be used to exploit users’ attention against their interests. ([Location 1645](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1645))
### CHAPTER 8 Systems
> A system is a set of elements connected to each other in ways that allow them to form complex wholes toward a particular goal. ([Location 1716](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1716))
> Systems are not just random collections of parts: the parts work together toward achieving one or more goals. ([Location 1761](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1761))
> A System Has Feedback Mechanisms Systems have the means to monitor the state of its components and adjust its functions accordingly. ([Location 1771](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1771))
> A System Has a Boundary The collection of parts that make up a system is not limitless: there’s a clear difference between the world inside the system and the world outside. ([Location 1776](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1776))
> Given that our time is limited, I think our attention is our ultimate nonrenewable resource. Whether we’re creating an information environment that helps people diagnose and treat diseases or one that helps them gossip with their friends, we’re going to be using up part of their allotted time on earth. Are they getting their “time’s worth” for engaging with this system? ([Location 1809](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1809))
> One of the most challenging aspects of designing information environments is seeing beyond their user interfaces to the conceptual structures that underlie them, and how elements in those structures interact with each other. ([Location 1817](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1817))
> I always like to keep in mind Gall’s law, which states: A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a simple working system. ([Location 1867](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1867))
### CHAPTER 9 Sustainability
> if environments are to stand the test of time, they must be able to accommodate change. However, they can’t change thoughtlessly, lest they fail to serve their intended functions. People must feel like they know the place when they visit; an environment that is changing in radical ways from one day to the next would be difficult if not impossible to use. Thus, the environments that best serve their goals over the long term, as the Kimbell does, strike a balance between flexibility and stability. They provide coherence and understandability while evolving gracefully in response to changing conditions. In other words, their structures and systems must be resilient. ([Location 1903](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1903))
#### Resilience
> I define resilience as the ability of any system—including environments such as the ones we’ve been discussing—to respond and adapt to change without compromising its primary purpose or its integrity. ([Location 1910](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1910))
> When dealing with an information environment, your goal should be to make sure that it can host meaningful interactions in the long term. To do this, it must sustain: • Itself: The environment should be able to generate enough resources to support its continued existence. • Its purpose: The environment should generate these resources without compromising the reason(s) why it exists. • Its social context: The environment should achieve its purpose(s) without compromising the societies that host it. ([Location 1948](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1948))
> As Brand explains, The combination of fast and slow components makes the system resilient, along with the way the differently paced parts affect each other. Fast learns, slow remembers. Fast proposes, slow disposes. Fast is discontinuous, slow is continuous. Fast and small instructs slow and big by accrued innovation and occasional revolution. Slow and big controls small and fast by constraint and constancy. Fast gets all our attention, slow has all the power. All durable dynamic systems have this sort of structure; it is what makes them adaptable and robust.5 ([Location 2011](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2011))
> As I’ve been thinking about how to make information environments more conceptually sound and resilient, I’ve started mapping my work to a pace-layer model. These are the layers I’ve come up with, from slowest to fastest: • Purpose: Why the organization, team, or product exists. This is not a goal since it can never be achieved; it’s an aspiration that the system is always working toward. • Strategy: How the organization aspires to do things differently to strive toward its purpose; how it’s going to compete. • Governance: How the organization shapes itself to implement its strategy. What are the rules and means of engagement, including the organization’s internal hierarchy? • Structure: The relationships between particular semantic elements that will inform end products and services. • Form: The user interfaces that people use to interact with the organization’s products and services. This layer is where the structure is articulated as artifacts that humans can experience. ([Location 2022](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2022))
### CHAPTER 10 Gardening
> Eno describes the subject of his Serpentine lecture as [. . .] the shift from “architect” to “gardener,” where “architect” stands for “someone who carries a full picture of the work before it is made,” to “gardener” standing for “someone who plants seeds and waits to see exactly what will come up.” ([Location 2149](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2149))
> As we move to create more complex information environments that continuously evolve, it becomes impossible for a single designer or team of designers to consider all possible requirements or explore all possible permutations up front. A new approach is called for, and Eno’s generative composition technique hints at a way for us to work toward a specific design objective without prescribing structures or forms up front. Gardens aren’t “wild” nature, nor are generative music pieces random noise: like buildings, they both have structure and intentionality. They’re designed artifacts, but their exact “final” form is unknown (and unknowable) to their creators. If we want to create information environments that serve our needs and stand the test of time, we must move to a more generative approach that allows structures to evolve continuously. ([Location 2155](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2155))
#### Characteristics of Generative Environments
> The foremost example of a generative information environment that supports emergence is Wikipedia, which has grown from a modest effort driven by a small group of individuals to become one of the most popular and useful websites in the world. ([Location 2203](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2203))
#### Unfinished
> You could say they’re in a continuous state of becoming what they aspire to be—even if they never truly achieve it. ([Location 2212](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2212))
#### Collaborative
> Generative information environments make it possible for people to work with each other to contribute to the system. ([Location 2219](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2219))
#### Diverse
> Generative information environments enable diversity within a stable framework. This makes it possible for actors with varying perspectives to contribute, thus making the whole richer and more resilient. ([Location 2227](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2227))
#### Robust
> Generative information environments are robust: they can change without compromising the integrity of the whole. Robustness calls for a balance between flexibility and stability. One way to accomplish this is by making it possible for actors in the system to revert potentially catastrophic changes. Wikipedia can delegate power and autonomy to new actors in the system because the environment is forgiving: changes to individual articles can be rolled back easily to earlier states. Thus, actions from a rogue actor don’t threaten the system overall. ([Location 2234](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2234))
#### Reputable
> Knowing who is allowed to make particular types of changes to the environment requires tracking the reputation of actors within it. If you know nothing else about contributors to the system, seeing a history of their past actions can help you make decisions about how trustworthy they can be. (This is why credit scores exist.) ([Location 2249](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2249))
#### Transparent
> Generative information environments provide mechanisms for actors to understand what is going on at any given time, both with the elements they are responsible for and with the whole. When they sense a change that requires their attention, they can then respond appropriately. ([Location 2259](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2259))
#### Recursive
> A generative information environment allows actors to do more than add and modify the content in it. It also provides mechanisms for those actors to modify the structure and operation of the environment itself. Because they are made of code, the rules that define these environments are not materially different than the content those rules produce. So they can be reinterpreted and adapted by the actors in the environment as easily as they can change and add to its content. ([Location 2266](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2266))
#### Led
> Environments that support emergence are led by people who are invested in the long-term success of the system. They deeply understand the vision that animates the environment and the principles that support the community as they move toward that vision. ([Location 2276](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2276))
#### Cohesive
> One of the most important tasks that fall on the environment’s leaders is creating a sense of cohesion among actors in it so they all know what they’re working toward and how they should go about it. ([Location 2289](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2289))
> If our environments—buildings, towns, websites, apps—are to have a long useful life—and serve our needs in the long term—we must plan for their ongoing evolution under different stewardship and in different conditions. In other words, all environments should be designed for emergence. Ultimately, the difference isn’t between prescribed and generative structures: it’s between environments designed by people who understand systems and change—and those designed by people who don’t. ([Location 2333](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2333))
> Using architecture as the framing for the design of digital things would open the door for them to think with a longer-term focus. Buildings are not meant to be consumed; they are designed to last. They have cultural import. They can naturally host the provision of services and interactions, the commercial exchange of products, and the production and consumption of publications. Architecture has been the broader frame in which we’ve done these things for centuries. Thinking through the architectural structures and systems that underpin our websites and apps is a prerequisite to creating contexts that support our needs in the long-term. ([Location 2384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2384))
> Generative information environments help us make decisions, which further our best interests as individuals, as organizations, and as societies. ([Location 2392](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2392))
> Generative information environments respect and value our attention. ([Location 2396](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2396))
> Generative information environments create more value than they capture. ([Location 2399](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2399))
> Generative information environments are resilient. ([Location 2402](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2402))
> Generative information environments do not compromise the viability of society as a whole. ([Location 2404](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2404))
> Generative information environments will not emerge organically. They require intentional design—they require architecture. And if they are to remain generative over the long term, they also require stewardship. This calls for leadership, vision, and the courage to think deeply, broadly, and long term. ([Location 2411](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2411))
## Citation
```
[^arango]: Arango, J. (2018). *Living in information: Responsible design for digital places.* Two Waves Books. [[readwise/Books/Living in Information|My Kindle highlights]], and [[sources/Book/Living in Information|my notes on this book]].
```
---
Title: Living in Information
Author: Jorge Arango
Tags: readwise, books
date: 2024-01-30
---
# Living in Information
Author:: Jorge Arango
## AI-Generated Summary
None
## Highlights
> Roman architect Vitruvius described three principles: “durability, convenience, and beauty.” The International Standards Organization (ISO) echoes Vitruvius, mandating software that is “effective, efficient, and engaging.” Architect Louis Sullivan proclaimed, “form ever follows function”—while Frog founder and Apple product designer Hartmut Esslinger quipped, “form follows emotion.” ([Location 94](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=94))
> Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who hired Frog early, noted, “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.” ([Location 97](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=97))
> I’ve been designing software (mostly websites and apps) professionally for almost 25 years, and as a hobby for at least a decade before that. I was educated as an architect, and worked as one for a year before I left architecture to dedicate myself fully to designing information environments. So my approach to user interface design is informed by placemaking. As you’ll see, there is much that software designers can learn from architecture. ([Location 190](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=190))
### CHAPTER 1 Environments
> Whether they be websites on your notebook computer, apps on your phone, or “conversations” with the “smart” cylinder on your mantelpiece, these environments are where you catch up with your friends, work, study, find a romantic partner, bank, shop, and undertake a whole host of other activities that our forebears did in physical space. Because they are composed primarily of information—words and images on screens—we refer to them as information environments. ([Location 223](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=223))
> So places serve on two levels: they perform physical functions and symbolic ones. Both are essential to healthy societies. Physically, they shelter us and provide us with contexts in which we can effectively perform our activities, including the secondary, but no less important, activity of socializing. Symbolically, they embody and catalyze our cultural identities at the local, national, or global level; in other words, they ground us. On both levels, places convey information. ([Location 283](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=283))
> You can think of information as anything that helps reduce uncertainty so that you can make better predictions about outcomes. ([Location 321](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=321))
> Information environments create contexts that influence our behavior and actions. ([Location 378](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=378))
> The writer and designer Edwin Schlossberg said, “The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.”6 I think the skill of designing—especially designing software—is creating contexts in which other people can work, learn, play, organize, bank, shop, gossip, and find great gelato. ([Location 379](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=379))
### CHAPTER 2 Context
> The environment in such a place offers cues that tell you what you can and can’t do there. These cues are called affordances, a concept introduced by psychologist J. J. Gibson in the 1960s.3 Gibson and his collaborator and wife Eleanor were interested in how organisms sense their environments. He coined the word affordance to describe how elements of an environment communicate the possibilities for action they afford to organisms that are capable of undertaking such actions. For example, to a being with opposable thumbs, a tree branch affords grasping. ([Location 506](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=506))
> affordances are not inherent characteristics of objects. They only pertain to the relationship between an object and an agent in the environment. ([Location 519](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=519))
> The success of the design depends on whether or not it supports the goals its users have for the sort of place it creates. ([Location 609](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=609))
### CHAPTER 3 Incentives
> There are many ways to incentivize people. Let’s examine three of them: • Remunerative incentives • Social incentives • Coercive incentives ([Location 660](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=660))
> For incentives to influence your behavior, you must have the freedom and ability to act in some ways and not others. If you can’t effectively choose one course of action over another, you can’t be incentivized. ([Location 683](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=683))
> Incentives imply an unequal relationship between parties. The party that sets the incentive holds some degree of power over the party being incentivized. ([Location 695](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=695))
> In other words, having a stable identity within a community is a key component for social incentives to be effective. ([Location 711](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=711))
> When identity can be fluid, people are less motivated by social incentives. In Twitter’s information environment, for example, participants can be anonymous and create or eliminate accounts on a whim. In such environments, people are shielded from the long-term social implications of their behavior, and do not face coercive (punitive) or moral/social incentives for their negative actions. Anonymity affords them impunity for behavior that wouldn’t be tolerated in physical environments. ([Location 714](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=714))
> In this case, transparency means easy access to the information necessary for any one individual to know how he or she is doing with regard to the incentives he or she is being measured by. ([Location 724](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=724))
### CHAPTER 4 Engagement
> In the late 1990s, researchers working at Xerox’s PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) noticed similarities between the way people search for information and the way that animals forage for food. The theory they developed, called information foraging, has been influential in the history of user interface design. The basis of these theories is the idea that our ability to focus our attention developed as a survival mechanism, which made it possible for our ancestors to find food in a complex environment while avoiding getting killed. ([Location 837](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=837))
> Understanding how our attentional mechanisms work helps us design environments that allow us to achieve our goals more by cutting down on distractions. ([Location 844](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=844))
> When we focus intensely on something or someone, we say we are paying attention to it. This metaphor suggests that we think of our attention as a sort of resource or currency that we spend at will. However, this idea of attention-as-currency is not accurate, since we can’t save our attention for later expenditure. The current moment is all we have, and once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. If we’re to think of attention as a resource, it should be as one that is nonrenewable. Your attention is one of your most precious possessions—one you should zealously guard from squandering. ([Location 866](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=866))
> It’s worth noting here that this is not a black-and-white issue; not all advertising-based information environments are necessarily “bad” for us. It comes down to what we want to use the place for, and making sure our goals and the goals of the people operating the environment are in alignment. For example, I have fewer issues with a search engine, such as Google, using an advertising-based business model. This is because I use the search engine to find stuff. Since the advertiser’s goal is get me to buy their wares (and this requires that I find them), our goals are more closely aligned than if I were using the place to chat with my friends. ([Location 1002](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1002))
### CHAPTER 5 Technology
> Innovation in information technology happens very fast, so I write these words knowing that this chapter of the book will age less gracefully than the rest. But if we aim to create information environments that stand the test of time, we need to understand the impact that technologies have on the form and capabilities of these environments and their ability to shape our attention. Looking at the technologies that promise the most change in how we relate to information is a good place to start. In this chapter, we will look at four such technologies. ([Location 1053](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1053))
#### Reframing Reality
> AR and VR blur the lines between digital information environments and physical environments. Instead of being something you access within the confines of a computer display, digital information becomes an integral part of your experience in the world. (In the case of VR, it becomes your experience of the world altogether.) Having a constant layer of information meaningfully overlaid over the “real world” is still the stuff of science fiction, but we’re not far from achieving something close to ([Location 1083](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1083))
#### Machines That Decide for Us
> These systems don’t need to mimic human interactions (like the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey) in order to be useful. In fact, you may not even be aware of their work behind-the-scenes. ([Location 1109](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1109))
#### Machines That Speak Our Language
> Early computers required that their users communicate with them by typing arcane commands into a text-based command line. The next dominant paradigm, graphical user interfaces (GUIs) such as the ones used by Apple’s Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, allowed users to interact with computers by pointing at menus and icons. Current touchscreen-based smartphones and tablets offer yet another paradigm: touchscreens that enable users to (literally) reach out and manipulate information with their fingers. As advanced and “learnable” as these interfaces are, they still require more thinking than regular conversation does. Interacting with other people by talking is something our species has done for much longer than we’ve had computers. Speech is our universal interface to our social world. ([Location 1142](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1142))
#### Connected Things Everywhere
> A subcategory of these “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices is what is often called “wearable” computers. ([Location 1175](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1175))
#### Disintermediating Trust
> The blockchain functions like an open—yet anonymized and encrypted—ledger that makes it easy for anyone to consult whether we’re good for the promises we make when we transact with each other. While this capability by itself has the potential to change how much of the world works, it doesn’t stop there. There’s nothing inherent in the technology to limit it to financial dealings; any transaction between two or more parties can be registered as part of a blockchain. As a result, it can replace intermediaries in all sorts of situations that currently call for establishing relationships of trust where none exist. ([Location 1216](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1216))
### CHAPTER 6 Architecture
> As with physical environments, such as buildings and towns, information environments must be designed to address particular needs. Although the design of software is relatively new, the design of environments is not. People have been creating buildings and towns for centuries. The field of design that has focused on designing environments is architecture. In this chapter, we will examine the design of information environments as a form of architecture. ([Location 1277](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1277))
> When many people think of design, they think of aesthetics: how something “looks and feels.” They may sense something has “good design” because it stands out from among similar products because of the way it looks. This is a misunderstanding. Design is not a characteristic of things; it’s a process by which things are made. It’s more of a verb than a noun. When we’re creating something new, design allows us to simulate possible solutions so that we can experience them without incurring the costs of building the final product. We do this by understanding the context the thing we’re designing will address (including the needs and expectations of the people who will use it) and producing models of varying fidelity that allow us to envision and test alternatives. For any one challenge, there are many possible ways forward. Design allows us to explore and refine the ones that best serve the needs of the project. Design is how we make possibilities tangible. These needs are expressed as requirements, which can be overt or tacit. ([Location 1282](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1282))
> Architecture informs our self-identity and culture more than any other design discipline. This is because the output of architecture revolves around the contexts in which much of our lives play out. ([Location 1319](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1319))
> Over the centuries, architects have developed various design principles that can guide us in the pursuit of these goals. Let’s examine a few of them. ([Location 1334](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1334))
#### Function
#### Ergonomics
#### Understandability
> Elements in the environment must not only be usable by people, but they must also be understood to be usable. The door “reads” as an opening in the wall; it says, “passage here!” Architects have long played with the configuration of elements to communicate particular messages and influence behavior. ([Location 1345](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1345))
#### Quality
#### Coherence
> every part of the composition contributes to the coherence of the whole. Most architects strive for gestalt: ensuring elements “carry their weight” conceptually toward a sense of wholeness in the place. ([Location 1360](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1360))
#### Fit
> Architects strive for what Christopher Alexander called “good fit”: a tight relationship between the form, or product, we have created, and the context it was created for, ([Location 1364](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1364))
#### Resilience
#### Mental Models
> Eventually, you figured out the “lay of the land” and could move around with ease, without having to think about it. How did you do this? You did it by developing a mental model of the environment. ([Location 1377](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1377))
> There is an emergent design discipline that does for information environments what architecture does for physical environments. It’s called information architecture. ([Location 1389](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1389))
#### The Architecture of Information
> Information architecture (IA) is the area of practice and field of study that concerns itself with the design of information environments. IA aims to make information easier for people to find and understand. As with (physical) architecture, this calls for bringing a particular order to the elements that comprise the environment. ([Location 1391](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1391))
> As Wurman put it, “You only understand information relative to what you already understand.”4 ([Location 1414](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1414))
> It’s time we recognize that these digital things we’re making are the places where many of our most important social interactions are happening, and start designing them accordingly. These things need architecture. ([Location 1449](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1449))
### CHAPTER 7 Structure
> There are various ways to organize the parts. For example, many organizations are arranged in a hierarchy, as is often the case of marketing reporting to sales. Hierarchies are characterized by one-to-many relationships between the parts, and can be visualized as trees, with the highest-ranking element in the structure being the equivalent of the trunk supporting various levels of branches and leaves below it. ([Location 1490](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1490))
> Another common structural arrangement is the network. In a network, any part can have a relationship with any other part. While not very common in organizations, there have been some experiments in networked corporate structures that allow teams to self-organize. (The foremost example, online shoe retailer Zappos, is based on a model called holacracy that aims to empower its constituent parts to define themselves and their relationships with other parts on an ad-hoc basis.1) ([Location 1494](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1494))
> A third way of organizing elements is a lattice: an arrangement in which parts have formal relationships with other parts, which are somehow adjacent to them. Unlike a hierarchy, whose relationships are top-down, relationships in a lattice can be established “sideways” between peer elements. Unlike networked arrangements, relationships in a lattice are not entirely arbitrary; they implement a particular pattern. In companies, this most often manifests itself as “matrixed” arrangements in which groups have both a top-down managerial structure and horizontal responsibilities and relationships with peer teams. ([Location 1498](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1498))
#### How We Experience Structure
##### Navigation and Labeling
##### Distinctions
> The key to using language effectively in navigation and labeling systems is to create distinctions in the user’s mind. The user won’t be able to create a mental model of the place if all of its parts sound similar. To illustrate: if you see a link labeled “log in,” you will immediately assume that the environment implements a distinction between public (logged out) and private (logged in) spaces. The difference between these is clear in your mind, and the use of the words in and out reinforces it. The ways that you divide and label the parts that make up an information environment tell a lot about what that information environment is for and what you can expect to do there. ([Location 1593](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1593))
> Note that this navigation system doesn’t need to include the word “yoga” in it. By using terms from the technical vocabulary of the semantic environment of yoga (“studio,” “classes,” “poses,” etc.), your mind starts thinking in that context. There is a sense of conceptual coherence and unity to these terms and icons (and even the choice of the color purple) that serve to reinforce the identity and purpose of the whole, even while presenting distinctions between its constituent parts. ([Location 1608](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1608))
> Metaphors ([Location 1612](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1612))
#### Thinking More Structurally
> Thus, thinking structurally requires considering the parts that will make up the environment simultaneously with the whole those parts create. The two are interrelated in ways that make them impossible to separate. Aligning the distinctions and relationships between these parts with the needs and expectations of users can create an environment that empowers them. Doing so makes the environment more understandable, since the people using it can relate to the way it’s organized, and it also makes it possible for them to focus their attention on completing the tasks they are there to do. Conversely, structural distinctions can also be used to create environments that are at odds with the needs and expectations of the people who use them. This not only makes the environment more difficult to navigate, but it can also create environments that can be used to exploit users’ attention against their interests. ([Location 1645](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1645))
### CHAPTER 8 Systems
> A system is a set of elements connected to each other in ways that allow them to form complex wholes toward a particular goal. ([Location 1716](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1716))
> Systems are not just random collections of parts: the parts work together toward achieving one or more goals. ([Location 1761](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1761))
> A System Has Feedback Mechanisms Systems have the means to monitor the state of its components and adjust its functions accordingly. ([Location 1771](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1771))
> A System Has a Boundary The collection of parts that make up a system is not limitless: there’s a clear difference between the world inside the system and the world outside. ([Location 1776](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1776))
> Given that our time is limited, I think our attention is our ultimate nonrenewable resource. Whether we’re creating an information environment that helps people diagnose and treat diseases or one that helps them gossip with their friends, we’re going to be using up part of their allotted time on earth. Are they getting their “time’s worth” for engaging with this system? ([Location 1809](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1809))
> One of the most challenging aspects of designing information environments is seeing beyond their user interfaces to the conceptual structures that underlie them, and how elements in those structures interact with each other. ([Location 1817](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1817))
> I always like to keep in mind Gall’s law, which states: A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a simple working system. ([Location 1867](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1867))
### CHAPTER 9 Sustainability
> if environments are to stand the test of time, they must be able to accommodate change. However, they can’t change thoughtlessly, lest they fail to serve their intended functions. People must feel like they know the place when they visit; an environment that is changing in radical ways from one day to the next would be difficult if not impossible to use. Thus, the environments that best serve their goals over the long term, as the Kimbell does, strike a balance between flexibility and stability. They provide coherence and understandability while evolving gracefully in response to changing conditions. In other words, their structures and systems must be resilient. ([Location 1903](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1903))
#### Resilience
> I define resilience as the ability of any system—including environments such as the ones we’ve been discussing—to respond and adapt to change without compromising its primary purpose or its integrity. ([Location 1910](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1910))
> When dealing with an information environment, your goal should be to make sure that it can host meaningful interactions in the long term. To do this, it must sustain: • Itself: The environment should be able to generate enough resources to support its continued existence. • Its purpose: The environment should generate these resources without compromising the reason(s) why it exists. • Its social context: The environment should achieve its purpose(s) without compromising the societies that host it. ([Location 1948](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=1948))
> As Brand explains, The combination of fast and slow components makes the system resilient, along with the way the differently paced parts affect each other. Fast learns, slow remembers. Fast proposes, slow disposes. Fast is discontinuous, slow is continuous. Fast and small instructs slow and big by accrued innovation and occasional revolution. Slow and big controls small and fast by constraint and constancy. Fast gets all our attention, slow has all the power. All durable dynamic systems have this sort of structure; it is what makes them adaptable and robust.5 ([Location 2011](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2011))
> As I’ve been thinking about how to make information environments more conceptually sound and resilient, I’ve started mapping my work to a pace-layer model. These are the layers I’ve come up with, from slowest to fastest: • Purpose: Why the organization, team, or product exists. This is not a goal since it can never be achieved; it’s an aspiration that the system is always working toward. • Strategy: How the organization aspires to do things differently to strive toward its purpose; how it’s going to compete. • Governance: How the organization shapes itself to implement its strategy. What are the rules and means of engagement, including the organization’s internal hierarchy? • Structure: The relationships between particular semantic elements that will inform end products and services. • Form: The user interfaces that people use to interact with the organization’s products and services. This layer is where the structure is articulated as artifacts that humans can experience. ([Location 2022](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2022))
### CHAPTER 10 Gardening
> Eno describes the subject of his Serpentine lecture as [. . .] the shift from “architect” to “gardener,” where “architect” stands for “someone who carries a full picture of the work before it is made,” to “gardener” standing for “someone who plants seeds and waits to see exactly what will come up.” ([Location 2149](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2149))
> As we move to create more complex information environments that continuously evolve, it becomes impossible for a single designer or team of designers to consider all possible requirements or explore all possible permutations up front. A new approach is called for, and Eno’s generative composition technique hints at a way for us to work toward a specific design objective without prescribing structures or forms up front. Gardens aren’t “wild” nature, nor are generative music pieces random noise: like buildings, they both have structure and intentionality. They’re designed artifacts, but their exact “final” form is unknown (and unknowable) to their creators. If we want to create information environments that serve our needs and stand the test of time, we must move to a more generative approach that allows structures to evolve continuously. ([Location 2155](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2155))
#### Characteristics of Generative Environments
> The foremost example of a generative information environment that supports emergence is Wikipedia, which has grown from a modest effort driven by a small group of individuals to become one of the most popular and useful websites in the world. ([Location 2203](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2203))
#### Unfinished
> You could say they’re in a continuous state of becoming what they aspire to be—even if they never truly achieve it. ([Location 2212](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2212))
#### Collaborative
> Generative information environments make it possible for people to work with each other to contribute to the system. ([Location 2219](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2219))
#### Diverse
> Generative information environments enable diversity within a stable framework. This makes it possible for actors with varying perspectives to contribute, thus making the whole richer and more resilient. ([Location 2227](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2227))
#### Robust
> Generative information environments are robust: they can change without compromising the integrity of the whole. Robustness calls for a balance between flexibility and stability. One way to accomplish this is by making it possible for actors in the system to revert potentially catastrophic changes. Wikipedia can delegate power and autonomy to new actors in the system because the environment is forgiving: changes to individual articles can be rolled back easily to earlier states. Thus, actions from a rogue actor don’t threaten the system overall. ([Location 2234](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2234))
#### Reputable
> Knowing who is allowed to make particular types of changes to the environment requires tracking the reputation of actors within it. If you know nothing else about contributors to the system, seeing a history of their past actions can help you make decisions about how trustworthy they can be. (This is why credit scores exist.) ([Location 2249](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2249))
#### Transparent
> Generative information environments provide mechanisms for actors to understand what is going on at any given time, both with the elements they are responsible for and with the whole. When they sense a change that requires their attention, they can then respond appropriately. ([Location 2259](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2259))
#### Recursive
> A generative information environment allows actors to do more than add and modify the content in it. It also provides mechanisms for those actors to modify the structure and operation of the environment itself. Because they are made of code, the rules that define these environments are not materially different than the content those rules produce. So they can be reinterpreted and adapted by the actors in the environment as easily as they can change and add to its content. ([Location 2266](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2266))
#### Led
> Environments that support emergence are led by people who are invested in the long-term success of the system. They deeply understand the vision that animates the environment and the principles that support the community as they move toward that vision. ([Location 2276](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2276))
#### Cohesive
> One of the most important tasks that fall on the environment’s leaders is creating a sense of cohesion among actors in it so they all know what they’re working toward and how they should go about it. ([Location 2289](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2289))
> If our environments—buildings, towns, websites, apps—are to have a long useful life—and serve our needs in the long term—we must plan for their ongoing evolution under different stewardship and in different conditions. In other words, all environments should be designed for emergence. Ultimately, the difference isn’t between prescribed and generative structures: it’s between environments designed by people who understand systems and change—and those designed by people who don’t. ([Location 2333](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2333))
> Using architecture as the framing for the design of digital things would open the door for them to think with a longer-term focus. Buildings are not meant to be consumed; they are designed to last. They have cultural import. They can naturally host the provision of services and interactions, the commercial exchange of products, and the production and consumption of publications. Architecture has been the broader frame in which we’ve done these things for centuries. Thinking through the architectural structures and systems that underpin our websites and apps is a prerequisite to creating contexts that support our needs in the long-term. ([Location 2384](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2384))
> Generative information environments help us make decisions, which further our best interests as individuals, as organizations, and as societies. ([Location 2392](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2392))
> Generative information environments respect and value our attention. ([Location 2396](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2396))
> Generative information environments create more value than they capture. ([Location 2399](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2399))
> Generative information environments are resilient. ([Location 2402](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2402))
> Generative information environments do not compromise the viability of society as a whole. ([Location 2404](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2404))
> Generative information environments will not emerge organically. They require intentional design—they require architecture. And if they are to remain generative over the long term, they also require stewardship. This calls for leadership, vision, and the courage to think deeply, broadly, and long term. ([Location 2411](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07D85CVBG&location=2411))