talor

@talor.computer

140 Followers 626 Following

AI / product engineer. building a more accessible future

scan of a book page, showing a logo. it is a drawn black and white panda, its legs wide as if sitting reclined, pensive. logo is numbered 189 in lower left
Mr chedda , a mouse in a suit and pants, raising his hands in a welcoming pose
people and agents need the same things
slide image. dark blurred gradient background. on the left half is a screenshot of the replit webview. there is a "theme control" bar, with settings for light/dark mode, a primary color selector, and a few other controls. previewed in the webview is a todo list app with a lavendar color scheme, matching the selected color in the control. on the right is four staggered screenshots of the same todo list app. they each have a unique primary color, green, red, pink and yellow. the appearance is also different, having various white, dark, or primary-colored backgrounds matching the primary color.
slide image. dark blurred gradient background, white text. replit logo in lower left. title: design systems make the decisions for you
slide image. dark blurred gradient background, white text. replit logo in lower left. title: design systems are good for agents and people
sketchy hand-drawn xy axis chart. black background with white foreground. the y is labeled "css" and the x is labeled "good". there's a downward red arrow, showing that more css = less good
slide image, blurred dark gradient background, replit logo lower left centered is a browser window with a "Trip location voting" page shown. its layout is very similar to the previous "Restaurant voting app" , but now the colors are dark background, purple accents, and light grey text, with buttons that have a faintly glowing appearance.
slide image, blurred dark gradient background, replit logo lower left centered is a browser window with a "Restaurant voting app" page shown. there is a large title, an "enter restaurant name" input with bright green submit button, and a list of restaurants. each list item has upvote, downvote, and delete icons, in bright teal, red, and orange colors respectively. the list items are: canes 10 votes mcdonalds 2 votes chik fil a 1 vote starbucks 0 votes chipotle 0 votes
slide image. dark blurred gradient background, white text. replit logo in lower left. title: most software doesn't look good. the image is the same as the previous slide, however, now various logos clutter and cover up the title, partly obscuring the text. these include microsoft sharepoint, google cloud, aws, and jira, representing software often disparaged for poor design
slide image. dark blurred gradient background, white text. replit logo in lower left. title: most software doesn't look good
slide image, black background with white text. small replit logo in bottom left. title: Designing an agent that Designs subtitle: Talor anderson filling the lower right quadrant of the slide is a cartoon frog nicknamed bufo with an artists hat, paintbrush, and easel
message request tab in Twitter screenshot featuring dm from Annabelle: what did you do today that made you smile?
iphone screenshot of webpage: So it's better to disguise your aims, to hide in plain sight. Don't call what you've built a tool for 3D Modeling or Game Develorment or Musical Composition; (start highlighted text) these are things that your latent users do not yet believe themselves to be capable of doing. (end highlighted text) Wrap your tool in a game, make it fun to play with, and do whatever you can to shield players from the kind of people who enjoy holding others to strict standards of Excellence. Present your creation as an Excellence-Free Zone, a safe space for glorious trainwrecks. Encourage people to make messes, and then surprise them with the realization that their messes consistently turn out ever so slightly better than they expect.
Software design is not generally well understood. I believe that inspired software design is art and not technology. I believe it can be much better understood in terms of movies and the philosophy of ideas-what I call the Theory of Virtuality-than in terms of computer technicalities. Software design is really the design and presentation of worlds of imaginary ideas, in the same way that a movie is the design and presentation of an imaginary story world. To make a movie, or to design software, is to design virtuality. But most movies take place in a world of human beings, or something very like it. Software design is more concerned with imaginary structures and their imaginary rules of order. It is an art form concerned with the design of abstractions. But in both cases the imaginary world must be presented to somebody's mind and heart, and this is much more like making a movie than it is like teaching algebra.