I've always been drawn to problems that can be precisely stated; they make my mouth water and I want to attack them. Even if they're not, at the outset, stated precisely, I enjoy trying to capture the vaguely-defined problem and formulating it precisely, and then taking a crack at finding a solution (which, too, should be precisely and concisely given). All the better if the problem allows me to work in the mode, which is my mind's native mode, of structure (as opposed to, say, color, or curve). And if the problem has deep, far-reaching implications—nirvana.

Hence computer science, ne?

And yet I realized today that most of the problems that I deal with as an engineer of software applications are not precisely stated—or so statable. Most of them have to do with psychology, perception, the way people think, and the habits and tendencies that people have in the use of everyday objects.

I really enjoy what I do, because I do have a certain ken for psychological/perceptual design issues, and I think that most technology is poorly designed (I mean it when I say "most") and I hope to bring my talents to bear on that and thereby improve the state of affairs. Technology's good is certainly debatable, but it's provided countless benefits, and anyway it's part of our lives so I'd rather have it be good than bad.

So I find myself doing not math problems, not precisely-drawn problems, but psychology problems, whose answers (and whose definitions, even), are subject to multiple perspectives, a variety of end goals, and a great deal of fuzzy reasoning. We can't be 100% certain of our answers, but we can make a good shot at it and make changes if we need to. We can all agree on the über-goal, which is to make useful artifacts, and generally, we can all appreciate how a given solution satisfies a given set of values and constraints. But most importantly the future of technology is a truly wide-open screen, where developments will make possible unforeseen phenomena (think what previously unimaginable goodies were ushered in with the advent of flight) and playing a part in that unpredictable change is the real thrill here.

And also, here is some purple stuff: