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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9040264" data-attributes="member: 6790260">But that doesn't tell you diddly-squat about what to do. Hence why it is useless as a design goal. Because it doesn't actually tell you anything about what to do. At absolute best, it only tells you whether you've succeeded in what you intended to do. At worst, it literally doesn't tell you anything, and you're left completely mystified why the thing you attempted didn't work (or, sometimes, did work!)Okay. How do you use that for actual design, then? How does it tell you what to do?It's not about playing. It's about design. I thought that was the point of the thread.That's like saying we should call porcelain "second-order cuisine" because the food and beverages you serve influence the kinds of dishes you'll use. That one influences the other does not mean they are the same kind of thing. I'm not saying it's not worth bothering about. I'm saying it isn't design. It's a different thing, which is related to design.No, because...you actually really really do need to think about that, to an enormous degree! (I would also say the analogy is badly-formed because, at the very least, instrumentation only exists in order to inform pilots...and thus you care about how pilots actually fly, if you're going to be making instrumentation for them.) But the problem here is that you are conflating "it is worth caring about" with "it is design." Design is an organized effort to create something, to skillfully or artfully arrange component parts together.I am not saying that this thing you call "second-order design" is unimportant. It is, in fact, quite important. I am simply saying that calling it "design" makes it seem like something it isn't. It makes it seem like something structured, when it is (pretty much by definition) unstructured. It makes "second-order design" seem intentional, when often (not always, but often) it is accidental, or at least incidental. It makes it seem planned, consistent, and deliberate, as opposed to the much more common state of affairs, namely improvised, irregular, and blasé.</blockquote>

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