Bret Victor - The Humane Representation of Thought
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN treats it as a foundational Bret Victor talk that reshaped how people think about software and interfaces, often cited alongside Dynamicland.
What it is
Bret Victor's closing keynote at UIST and SPLASH 2014 argues that our tools for thinking ignore most of human sensory and motor capability. He sketches representations that engage more modalities beyond screens and keyboards.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 6 different months, 2017 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec Stwerner · 2018-04 · on “Ask HN: What is your favourite tech talk?”
Really excited to go through all the other talks listed here I'm not familiar with! Three talks that I tend to reference a lot and have had a huge impact on the way I think about software: The Soul of Software: Avdi Grimm - [LINK] The Humane Representation of Thought: Bret Victor - [this video] How to Program Independent Games: Jonathan Blow - [LINK]
Recommends skadamat · 2017-06 · on “Ask HN: Why does visual programming suck?”
It's going to be entirely different I feel. Instead of manipulating graphics on a flat screen, focus will probably be on manipulating physical objects on a table / in a room. Watch his 2 talks that highlight the thinking and inspiration behind the RealTalk project: [LINK] [this video]
Recommends skadamat · 2017-10 · on “The HARC First Year Report”
Highly recommend Bret's 2 talks for context: [1] Seeing Spaces: [LINK] [2] Humane Representation of Thought: [this video]
Recommends skadamat · 2018-10 · on “Dynamicland: The Next Big Thing Is a Room”
One of the goals of Dynamicland is to foster the creation of new representations that take advantage of + live across more sensory modalities. Bret calls them modes of representation, but there are similar phrases in learning & psychology literature. Most representations are haphazardly created (math notation, periodic table of elements, etc) by (often) singular experimentation. Representations are poorly researched and understood (there's no branch of science dedicated to them). If representations were studied more closely, we could get much better at deliberately creating representations that are more humane. When the scientific method is applied, we can then apply the engineering method t
Recommends badassiel · 2021-09 · on “Show HN: Web browser to help programmers think clearly”
It just so happens I was thinking about spatial org just yesterday, that it would be so nice if I can have 'villages' of tabs on a (geographical) Map. Amazing co-incidence that I woke up to bonsai browser notification! You might find The Humane Representation of Thought[1] by Bret Victor[2] useful, where he demonstrates by example, how existing tools/software (generally speaking) doesn't utilize all the 'superpowers' that we acquired via evolution. --- [1]: [this video] [2]: [LINK] Edit - grammatical fixes
Recommends yesenadam · 2023-01 · on “Ask HN: Has anyone fully attempted Bret Victor's vision?”
For the people asking who is Bret Victor: When "What are your favourite tech talks of all time?" is asked on HN, he gets more mentions than anyone else, usually. Some of his talks: Inventing on Principle [LINK] The Future of Programming [LINK] The Humane Representation of Thought [this video] Media for Thinking the Unthinkable [LINK] Seeing Spaces [LINK] Drawing Dynamic Visualizations [LINK] [LINK]
Cites mitchtbaum · 2018-10 · on “Ask HN: What are some of the best technical talks you've heard?”
on one level, yes on another, they're down right scary and overwhelming, or at least dumbfounding and perplexing ..thinking specifically about The Humane Representation of Thought [this video] I had to stop it half way through.. :-/ see also Seeing Spaces [LINK] and Media for Thinking the Unthinkable [LINK]
Cites skadamat · 2018-10 · on “Dynamicland: The Next Big Thing Is a Room”
I had the pleasure of visiting Dynamicland and hanging out with Peter Norvig, Nicky Case and many others. There's a few things that stuck out for me: - The community! Most people I interacted with were pretty inter-disciplinary. Some came from an education heavy background, others from a more programming language background. Some from interface design, others from physical installation or video game background (and everything in between). Everyone had their own degree of skepticism but were excited by the discussions that were happening (a sign of a good research culture!). - The representations : What excites me the most about Dynamicland is that it's an environment for fostering unique rep