Explore the Medium

Question: What can the medium teach you?

I’d like to briefly explore and outline how the inherent properties, and constraints of different media, industries, and perspectives reveal hidden insights that transcend the original context.

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Key Ideas and Examples

Material Resistance

• Each medium “pushes back” in unique ways (wood grain vs. clay malleability)
• These resistances aren’t obstacles but features of the medium’s essential nature

Constraint-to-Innovation

• Document surprising innovations born from medium-specific limitations
• Twitter’s character limit → new communication forms
• How Nintendo’s hardware limitations created distinctive game aesthetics

Cross-Pollination

• Architects applying biological principles
• Healthcare workflows improving restaurant operations
• The deliberate practice of structured observation of other fields

Knowledge Extraction

• The wisdom that can’t be verbalized but must be experienced
• How apprenticeship models capture this in traditional crafts
• Techniques for making knowledge more explicit

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A Half-Baked Formula

Medium Immersion

• Deeply engage with an unfamiliar medium/domain
• Document initial struggles and resistance points
• What feels “unnatural” or “impossible” initially?

Extract Principles

• What core rules govern this medium?
• Identify a number of fundamental constraints
• Note unexpected affordances

Deliberate Translation

• Force metaphorical connections to your domain
• “This is like <a concept> in my field because <some reason>”
• Create a simple mapping of cross-domain concepts

Invert Assumptions

• What’s fundamentally backwards from your field?
• Which “impossible” things here are “easy” there?
• What would your work look like with these inversions?

Apply & Analyze

• Import one principle as a creative constraint
• Run a small experiment using this constraint
• Document what worked/failed and unexpected outcomes