spencercritchley.com Archives: March 2009
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25 March 2009
We Need to Teach Visual Critical Thinking
I was just looking at yet another vacuous presentation graphic, this one purporting to illustrate the SMART test for defining objectives. It looked something like this: This is of course rubbish. Infographics guru Edward Tufte would object strenuously to its low information density: in place of the pretty picture we could simply say “these characteristics [...]
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6 March 2009
Dawn of the Software Comedian
Microsoft Songsmith, designed to be a software aide for musical composition, has instead proved to be a great tool for comedy, as early adopters have exploited its bent for generating
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6 March 2009
More Creativity in a Can: When Thomas Dolby Met the Rhinestone Cowboy
Microsoft Songsmith has been stuck in my mind lately like, well, a bad song (follow that link at your own risk). It’s got me reflecting about the long trend towards using music technology to increase productivity, but not creativity. And that reminds me of the following anecdote about one night in New Orleans with Thomas [...]