{"id":448,"date":"2007-01-31T09:57:41","date_gmt":"2007-01-31T14:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/?p=448"},"modified":"2007-01-31T09:57:41","modified_gmt":"2007-01-31T14:57:41","slug":"design-purpose-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/design-purpose-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"Design, Purpose, Sense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Interesting comment over at <a href=\"http:\/\/headrush.typepad.com\/creating_passionate_users\/\">Creating Passionate Users<\/a>, where guest blogger Dan Russell has been doing some <a href=\"http:\/\/headrush.typepad.com\/creating_passionate_users\/2007\/01\/sensemaking_3th.html\">blogs on &#8220;sensemaking.<\/a>&#8221; I&#8217;m just tuning in, but this bit from reader <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.monstuff.com\">Julien Couvreur<\/a> caught my eye:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I find that this model fits my own learning model. For example, when I learn some new computer code or library, I build a representation in my head as I go. Many of the gaps are filled by intuition, because things that are designed for a purpose usually make sense.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That last clause is a corker: &#8220;things that are designed for a purpose usually make sense.&#8221; Stands to reason, yes? Trouble is, many students begin with an assumption, reinforced in many instances by the casual skepticism that can pass for insight in academic communities, that &#8220;purpose&#8221; is either absent or unknowable, and &#8220;design&#8221; is either hopelessly idiosyncratic or functionally irrelevant. In other words, many students believe (or act as if they believe) that there is little agency or deliberate craft in our academic pursuits. Instead, it&#8217;s iteration iteration iteration, turtles all the way down.<\/p>\n<p>Probably that&#8217;s too pessimistic, but the larger point still resonates: if one believes (and it really is an article of faith, sometimes) that elements of human culture are meaningful in terms of individual agency, i.e., designed with a purpose, sensemaking becomes much easier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Interesting comment over at Creating Passionate Users, where guest blogger Dan Russell has been doing some blogs on &#8220;sensemaking.&#8221; I&#8217;m just tuning in, but this bit from reader Julien Couvreur caught my eye: I find that this model fits my &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/design-purpose-sense\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4bHwM-7e","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}