Networked thoughts is my simple theory that people think in terms of atomic ideas that contain relations to each other. It's kind of vague and open-ended but here's an example: we think of a computer
as a computing machine that we can do some work on. Your specific computer is a concrete manifestation of the idea. An abstract computer
is an "idea" and your specific computer
is an idea related by concrete manifestation
relationship. My dad
is the father
of me
. My wallet
belongs to me
. The president
lives
in the White House
.
Basically, our thoughts are like a graph; it has edges and nodes, and they both have properties.
I describe this in a lot more detail and show applications to it in
The need for a rigorous model for human thought
Coming up with a rigorous model for human thinking
This framework of thinking is pretty important in UI/UX and design in general. Anytime we provide a product to the user, to ensure a good experience, we want the graph representation of our product (i.e. the way it's programmed and the way it stores data, etc.) to be the same graph as the one our users generate for themselves while using the product.
But it has broad reaches outside of that too:
Applying the idea of networked thoughts to programming
The idea of temporary supports in human learning
Anytime we're making a platform for other people to create on as well, we want users to be able to create in a way that matches their internal representation.
Matching form in a stream of information avoids friction
Along this line of thought, I'm working on a project that lets users write notes in a "networked thought" fashion: