Look at the first generation of online learning — the endless courses that married repurposed PowerPoint with HTML, sealing the match with good old “click next to continue.” Ample sound and fury spent on pointless animation and lamebrained interaction (“Terrific, Dave! You’re right — the sales process does involve the customer.”

Wonderfully simple formulae, these are. I like the ideas.

I suspect, though, that like all useful expressions or formulae that have some scientific association, they are perhaps too simple but none-the-less very useful.

A similar equation that could be applied could be:

W = U/C (W:worth, U:usefulness, C:complexity)

Any of these guidelines reliy on its parameters that have measures to be determined subjectively. Many would and could argue that the worth of the pyramids is in their iconic beauty, and their awesome presence that has stood the test of time, almost as long as the alphabet.

I’d argue that the usefulness of the alphabet has well eclipsed the usefulness of the pyramids, but again, these are parameters that have subjective quantities associated with them. Like comparing bananas with steel bolts. A major material parameter used quantitatively as a comparison is mass, but that is not necessarily a useful comparator.

Catchya later
from Middle-earth