The past week, I've had multiple discussions around knowledge management, documentation, sources of truth's, information architecture, and adapting interfaces on the fly because insights matured & contexts changed.
It's been across the vastly different internet spaces I'm active in:
- a Job Seeker's Support Group I've been co-hosting in Active Voice's community;
- in my work designing a web application for the Space Force;
- from Mike Monteiro's Good News newsletter; and
- explicitly from Kate Heartfield on Bluesky related to writing.
And I wasn't the one bringing these topics up.
Coincidental conversations sparking thoughts.
A feature, not a bug.
Some of the discourse has been around generative artificial intelligence (flavor: large language models).
The point of the practices like this is the effort, the labor, the work.
Knowledge Management is a purposeful friction.
In asynchronous work, documenting decisions, progressions, patterns, and why's...it's a necessary friction and aspect of "delivering things."
In reality, all work we do is for future others. Whether the other be ourselves or someone different.
It's why one of my beliefs is that Documentation is Important.
Seeing this in the Antiracist Tech Principles (need to cite book). In practice (Dan Mall's design is documentation, the budding industry of design systems, etc). In craft (apprenticeships in design, engineering, architecture, art) to learn from those before you. In art (Mike Monteiro 's recent Post about AI). In writing (the Wild Mind, The Practice, etc). In just...careers, professions, and ways to live.
The perfection of pouring the perfect cup of tea.
It's the practice—the purpose is the point—not the destination.
Another reskeet—the overly cyclist advice of going faster, not pedaling harder. And the quote post of the rower, loosening grip.
From design through engineering, art and the fact of being human: friction is purposeful.
That purpose, and that friction, can be very harmful.
That's a way of purposeful friction that's focused on marginalization, exclusion, discrimination, racism, eugenics, and...Othering, in general.
So, that purposeful friction still yields to the gods on the lawful-chaotic and good-evil axes.