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Dear Jerry,

This is getting closer. It's not here yet, but if you can polish it a 
bit further, I'll reach for my wallet with pleasure.

Of course no one can work without memory and prior experience. What I 
asked for, though, restricts this to understanding the instructions 
rather than remembering or understanding how to tie the laces.

To me, this seems clear and articulate, but something seems to be 
missing. Perhaps I'm wrong, but the missing elements have to do with 
point of view, where the tier puts hands, and how the hands move 
(over, under, that sort of thing). On the while, though, this is 
close. In fact, I've never seen anyone get this close. Only goes to 
show you that architecture and design practice may lead to skills in 
articulating motion through space that software engineers, computer 
management specialists, accountants, and other IT and business types 
may lack. (Those are the groups its been tested on.)

Now I'm curious to see if you can push it all the way. Obviously, 
there's some room for good faith understanding and basic 
intelligence, but I'd argue that the border lies between this clear 
platform and a finished product.

But there's no need to forego the dinner if you complete it and the 
three judges agree.

What do you say to dinner at Ristorante Italiano at the Excelsior Inn 
in Eugene? It's an Italian restaurant that adheres to the slow food 
tradition. I recommend their polletto al mattone cooked on a clay 
brick over open flames. The chicken is a poussin, something like a 
Cornish game hen, from a regional farm. They serve it with cous-cous, 
grilled asparagus and a saffron chevre broth that sounds marvelous. 
It's a bit off my travel path, so let's say that the companion of 
your choice can sit in on my behalf.

I know you don't need the cash, but I'll contribute 100 pounds worth 
of design research books to the library at University of Oregon in 
honor of your solution. The library still needs Nigel Cross's 
Designerly Ways of Knowing and Harold Nelson and Erik Stolterman's 
The Design Way. The library already has the other two books I checked 
for -- Klaus Krippendorff's The Semantic Turn and Victor Margolin's 
Politics of the Artificial, but if you find a major recent title 
missing, I'll add it to the list.

If you write it, I will pay.

Warmest wishes,

Ken



Jerry Diethelm wrote:

--snip--

Some people I know will always consider designing an entertaining 
trick. Abracadabra! In this case, my design strategy - to reveal the 
secret - was to create a description at the highest conceptual level 
that was not a tautology. All descriptions, of course, require 
concepts and an understanding of the concepts that they employ. Below 
like any competent computer programmer, I continue by defining the 
terms Half-Granny and Bow. There is no way to shut out prior 
knowledge or memory, no way to avoid the meaning of terms or common 
operations, such as make a loop, wrap around or pull through. All the 
concepts and operations I've used are common to everyday life and 
experience. Finding people to test this description who aren't 
familiar with these things probably means finding people who couldn't 
tie their shoes anyway. At what level of description would Ken 
consider the concepts and terms in the making of a description out of 
bounds? How could one ever operate without memory? Or not bring their 
prior experience to bear?

And so once more:

To tie your shoelaces:

First make the first half of a Granny or Square knot and then tie a bow.

To make a Half-Granny, step one, take one lace and wrap it around the 
other lace one time and pull the laces tight. The Half-Granny 
one-time overlapping of the laces holds the laces tight and becomes 
the base for the bow.

A bow is a knot with two loops. To make a bow, step two, make a loop 
with one lace and wrap the other lace around the base of the loop 
pulling it around and under itself and then through the wrap far 
enough to make the second loop. Holding a loop of the bow in each 
hand, pull the bow tight against the Half-Granny base to complete the 
tying process.

Now tie the other shoe so that you do not trip on your laces when you 
get up to walk around.

--snip--