(2022-01-31) Brander Subconscious Napkin Sketch

Gordon Brander: Subconscious napkin sketch. This quick sketch is a mashup of several theories that have influenced my design process, including…

the other day I made this quick napkin sketch and I’m realizing it’s a pretty good "grand unified model” for how I’m thinking about designing a tool for thought

Cybernetics

Diverge/converge

Pask’s Conversation Theory, which sees knowledge as conversational process. Knowledge exists subjectively in each of our minds, and we construct it through conversation with others.

Evolution as a process that happens in any system with mutation, heredity, selection.

So back to the napkin sketch… What if we reimagined diverge/converge as a single moment within a larger conversational feedback loop—one where the outputs of convergence become the inputs for new creative divergence?

(Converge) Search-or-create: one of the core game mechanics in Subconscious is inspired by Notational Velocity, a classic open source notes app. The key idea is to create notes through a search flow

Many features in Subconscious map to either the diverge or converge phases of knowledge construction. Other features carefully close feedback loops so that the polished outputs from a converge step become inputs for a future diverge step.