The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

Alan Cooper

Necessary Drag

Removing friction sometimes creates chaos.

For lack of a better term, I have labeled this new problem substance cognitive friction. It is the resistance encountered by a human intellect when it engages with a complex system of rules that change as the problem changes. ... Playing a violin is extremely difficult but low in cognitive friction because although a violinist manipulates it in very complex and sophisticated ways, the violin never enters a "meta" state in which various inputs make it sound like a tuba or a bell.
Trust Networks

Large coordination emerges from small-scale trust.

Keep the teams small. In order to progress, the designers need to share the same vision. ... Before that point, too many cooks spoil the broth.
Perfectionist's Trap

Pursuit of perfection prevents completion.

Like mad sculptors chipping away at a huge block of marble hoping to discover a statue inside, the developers wrote immense quantities of useless code that was all eventually thrown away, along with money, time, reputations, and careers.