Approaching

I always felt that Theology, as a discipline, was very ungrounded. Turns out I just did not know what the ground was. To give us a ground for it, our History of Theology and Philosophy course is approaching the entire topic from an epistemological angle. “How can we know ourselves?”, and “How can we know God?” are the two primary questions through which we will look at the history of Christian theology.

One such starting place is Plotinus, the major influence behind Augustine. Understanding Plotinus’ neo-Platonism is the first task of the day. I have honestly heard the term of Ideal-Form before this class, though I could in know way describe it nor percieve its referent.

Already with just the most basic of sketches I have Tetris blocks falling into place within what I have read and misunderstood in Theology thus far. I actually find Plotinus’ Ideal-Form of the first order logos contemplating in action thus creating a second order logos to be a natural thought (though his language is not read naturally at all). Researchers into linguistics know that without the idea behind a word that word cannot exist in the language. Without the Form the Matter, or expression in linguistic terms, cannot exist. And so it is with the mind or intellect. Without the essence of a thing known its matter will go entirely unrecognized.

I think this is why Design, of all sorts, interests me so much. It is the search for the essence of a thing manifested in its matter. We often confuse the matter of a thing with its essence. It requires a trained designer to break free of the conventional material form given to a thing. They can break free, find the true Form and re-design matter around the Form – thus changing our own perceptions based on the old material form.

This is why I find the very idea of Ideal-Form understandably natural. However, once we come to defining the actual existence (metaphysical, ontological, woohoo) of such Forms, and their active Contemplation (even among inanimate objects) I feel I will be back in the mire.

Practical Beauty

In our time, many of us have been taught to strive for an insane perfection that means nothing. Christopher Alexander

YourCal, an update

You can now find YourCal over at github. This is my little side-project that I am working on, a web-based calendar. It is much simpler, and is meant to be. I don’t need to see hourly detail over the entire month. I can’t read anything that way! When I go to my calendar I either need to be reminded of something I need to do (exactly like Rememberthemilk), or I need to check a specific date to see if I’m busy and possibly add something. Unfortunately, the Rememberthemilk greasemonkey script for gmail is clumsy and just doesn’t cut it (though once things are added, it is exactly what I want, and the inbox is a good place for it). So this calendar app is designed to be much much simpler, so I can use it.

On the other hand, it’s finally beginning to dawn on me, that to get ahead and make a place for myself – I have to start doing projects that I find interesting, with technology that I find interesting, and that is entirely open to the world. It makes for awesome ideas, and allows people to see what I can (since I can’t show them code from where I work).

The Tyranny of Context

This is another cross-category post, but a very important one I find, you’ll notice the tag line on this site “‘Texts matter, but contexts matter even more’ – Apply liberally”. I do mean to apply this principle liberally, to everything I can find. To theology, to programming, to design, to life, to everything.

We are bound very tightly to the context in which we live. We are bound so tightly we do not realize it. This is why new experiences and new places are so formative for people. When you have no context for a new experience it is thrilling and exciting and you end up creating a context for it.

As this post talks about the context of technology in your life. Some people ridicule, from the objective perspective, technologies affect on people and society, but fail to recognize that in their own life – in its context.

Putting the context behind a historical figure (like Jesus for instance) illuminates his actions. You can do that with any historical figure, and it is necessary to do that when you study them. Without the context you are creating your own context based on yourself and your situation, rather than on the historical figure. No wonder it creates confusion and a lack of understanding.

Putting the context behind design matters as well. This post at 37signals just goes to show the unintended consequences of decoration. The decoration created a context that made things confusing.

Always pay attention to the context.

PSO is the Penalty of Doing It Wrong

I was lamenting with a former co-worker and friend about Professional Services Organizations (PSO). If you’re unfamiliar with the term, you sure know the concept. A PSO is a company that makes money, gains clients, or keeps client, by supporting its flagship product with heavy customizations and installations. I am going to go out on a limb here, and say that for an internet company, operating on a “Software as a Service” business model, if you are a PSO you have failed your primary job.

For your failure you will suffer through pain. You will watch as your clients become your master. You will become beholden to their insane desires just to keep them as clients. You will have to hire dedicated people to support your customers and their customizations. This part of your company will run at a loss. It will chew up most of your time, and cause most of your headaches. Your client-facing people will do the least amount of work necessary to get the client off their phones. Your developers will go mad implementing customizations never dreamed up by the initial product creators. You will spend less and less time focusing on your product and your core code. This is the punishment for failure.

Now, let me explain how you have failed. You created a product. That product was liked. It solved a problem adequately. It filled a niche. People bought it. But you missed something. You missed the true need of your clients. You missed their expectation. You see, if you fulfilled their needs, they wouldn’t have these itches and pet projects to throw at you. Their itches are real. Their pet projects are wrong. You missed their itch. Their pet project is an attempt to design a software solution (which isn’t their job) to their itch. The second you give in to the pet project, instead of finding the itch, the game is over. The minute you do not incorporate the itch into your project pitch and vision, the game is over. You have to be willing to say ‘No’ to your client. If their itch does not fit into your product there are two possible reasons; one, you don’t understand the product domain, or two, you are not looking for that type of client. You cannot please everyone. Understand that.

I hope you have not yet found yourself in this kind of a situation. It is an uphill fight to recreate an environment in which your product matches the client need and expectation. It is an uphill fight to recreate an environment in which your clients will shut up and let you lead. Good luck.

A Consideration of Art

When I talk about Art I hope it has some meaning. Art is not decoration. Art is not superfluous. Art has meaning. Take for instance the Thorncrown Chapel in Arkansas. How you build your church says a lot about what you believe. Sure often times Churches do not have the money that it would take to do something like this (this discussion is had here). Again we are not talking about mere asthetics, but the functional way in which the building is built and laid out. The Thorncrown is made of supporting crossbeams. Clearly they believe, and believe it important, that the body of Christ should hold one another up. That is why they built their sanctuary in such a manner. It is also made of glass, nearly down to the floor. You can see God’s creation, and you are an active participant in it. You are not enclosed away from the world. You are directly in the world, not cloistered away.

Who would not be incredibly moved to worship in that building. There is something important and true about having a special place for God. God is not mundane, he is not common. He should not be approached commonly. Being in a church building is supposed to prepare us to encounter God. That is why we are there. There is no question that the church buildings of the Catholics, Anglicans, and Eastern Orthodox evoke a much stronger presence of image of the faith that they uphold. I hope one day to sit in the Sistine Chapel for a service and encounter God there.