
“Bicycle of the Mind” - jensgk
https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/bicycle-121262546097
======
ferros
>literally in 1980 you programmed a computer if you bought one

This is the biggest difference to now for me. Because computers were so new
you would be getting your hands dirty with hardware and operating system level
stuff.

Now, you hardly leave the browser and really could stay in the browser to do
almost anything you want to.

~~~
fragmede
Human brains have scarcely changed in the interim. We still struggle to store
more than a few bits of information in short-term memory and being able to
multiply two two-digit numbers without having to resort to pen and paper is
still tough for many.

The "bicycle" has evolved into smartphones, and is a better bicycle than ever.
Instead of trying to memorize a seven or ten digit number, I always have a
device handy to save a phone number (or better yet, IG username). Instead of
trying to run numbers in my head and getting confused, there are apps like
Soulver[] that no only help with doing the math, but help ascribe meaning to
the numbers.

The Internet fundamentally changes computing, changing the metaphor as well.
The bicycle (smartphone) lets us onto bike paths (the Internet), to visit
stores (web pages). I can reach out to a dozen people and organize lunch from
my phone, before I even get out of bed and go for a real morning bike ride.

[0]
[https://www.acqualia.com/soulver/iphone/](https://www.acqualia.com/soulver/iphone/)

------
lcuff
The graph showing calories per gram per kilometer is very interesting. I
wonder though, for bicycling, how the energy cost of paving the surface we
bicycle on is factored in, if at all? On 'natural' ground, depending on the
terrain of course, bicycling can be substantially harder than walking, well-
nigh impossible over rocky ground.

And by analogy, what kind of negative impact does the computer bring to the
process of mind. If I have to think hard about something, I typically close my
eyes, not reach for my laptop. Although the fact that so much knowledge is now
at my fingers tips probably trumps anything. Henry Ford wasn't nearly as smart
as Leonardo da Vinci, but his access to knowledge enabled him to create
vehicles Leonardo could only imagine.

~~~
hyperpallium
Amplifying your mind by programming the tools you need is more like bicycling
without a trail over rocky ground, walking it up steep slopes and carrying it
over fallen trees, than it is like bicycling on a road.

Programming is helpful for finding cases you didn't think of and remembering
the details you aren't working on right now (like writing) - but only for
programming.

 _Writing_ is the bicycle of the mind.

~~~
eternauta3k
> Writing is the bicycle of the mind

Are you thinking about Ted Chiang's "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling"?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_of_Fact,_the_Truth_o...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_of_Fact,_the_Truth_of_Feeling)

~~~
hyperpallium
No, but thanks for the link - I don't think I've read that one (though I can
never tell from Ted's titles). Text:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140222103103/http://subterrane...](https://web.archive.org/web/20140222103103/http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2013/the_truth_of_fact_the_truth_of_feeling_by_ted_chiang)

Maybe I should have said " _Language_ is the bicycle of the mind", but we
didn't invent that.

------
fit2rule
I think we can return to the glory days of computing with one small tweak:
insist that OS vendors include a lean and clean compiler in the default
install.

An OS that ships without tools to make apps for it is not an Operating System
but rather an Appliance System.

And, for those who will reply "but my disk space and all the bloat of a
compiler onboard methodology" \- well that'd be a next step: destroy the
bloat.

~~~
jimmaswell
Not compiling but Windows ships with VBScript, JS, and Powershell, all with
the ability to interface with the OS. I used VBScript for the first time a
while ago to make a step in a batch process and it was pretty convenient.

~~~
jhbadger
And MacOS comes with Perl, Python, and Ruby in /usr/bin. Plus several UNIX
shells with scripting ability.

~~~
jimmaswell
Didn't a lot of computers back then just come with a BASIC shell, not any
compilers?

~~~
jhbadger
Right. But we are talking about how modern computers come with development
systems too. While I'm sure the percentage of hobbyist programmers on modern
machines is far smaller than in the 8-bit era, it's not like modern machines
don't come with at least some development tools too.

~~~
jimmaswell
Yeah, that was my point. Saying it has to be a compiler is arbitrary.

~~~
fit2rule
It should be a compiler because that's the best way to write efficient, non-
bloat software with your computer.

All the other methods encourage bloat.

------
octosphere
Most of the time we are programmed by the device itself. That is to say, we
should program a PC instead of having it dictate our day and tell us what to
do. An email inbox for example is nothing more than a todo list created by
someone else and apparently we have to check each item off and reach the
mythical 'inbox zero'.

Then we have the browser where news comes at us randomly and we have 100 tabs
open but no idea how or where those tabs come from - they are an example of
how unorganized our thoughts are when we use the web. There's no curation, no
attempt to organize information, because apparently its done already for us in
the form of Google and other crawlers.

------
georgewsinger
The VR computing revolution presents the opportunity for us to get back to the
"bicycle of the mind" frame of mind: where computing gives us tools to augment
human intellect. For example, there are a set of office applications out there
that (i) can make an office worker 10x more productive at his/her job than
otherwise and (ii) are only possible to build in VR/AR. The goal for us/people
in this ecosystem should be to find them and build them.

[https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula](https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula)

~~~
gallerdude
That's very optimistic, but it's hard for me to see at this stage in the game,
how AR/VR can make someone 10x more productive, especially when it just
appears to be a VR window manager.

~~~
fragmede
AR has its place, but a paperless office doesn't seem like the right fit. The
factory floor does though! [https://www.howtogeek.com/400963/google-glass-
isnt-dead-and-...](https://www.howtogeek.com/400963/google-glass-isnt-dead-
and-its-the-future-of-industry/)

------
throwaway081719
So much commentary on this quote and no one mentions a possible link to LSD as
inspiration? It's taboo to say it because the subject matter is illegal. But
this is honestly one of the most psychedelic-sounding Steve Jobs quotes I can
think of.

------
rusk
The page is down, and I don’t know if this is related but there was a great
clip of Steve Jobs describing computing as being a bicycle for the mind, in
terms of how it comparably amplifies our capabilites. One of my all time
favourite quote from the guy and an ever enduring thought for me whenever I
need to be reminded about why I do the stuff I do.

~~~
lioeters
The metaphor is brilliant, it's simple, relatable and embodies an insight
about the nature of personal computers.

About "man-machine partnership" and how computers amplify the human mind, the
concept goes back to Douglas Englebart's work at Stanford Research Institute,
namely the paper "Augmenting the Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework"
(1962).

[http://dougengelbart.org/content/view/138](http://dougengelbart.org/content/view/138)

The influence is so direct and clear that I wish the Medium article had at
least mentioned his name.

~~~
carapace
Cf. "The Mother of All Demos"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos)

Arguably, we are using the dregs of the possibilities.

------
ale22
One of the most important things for tinkerability of an OS is the shell. IMO
bash has dropped the ball in the last 20 years. It's a poor programming
language experience. I think we should replace bash with node.js Javascript
shell, that will bring back LISP style computers back in vogue.

~~~
thatfunkymunki
Please God no. There are so many useful and usable scripting languages, why
infect our shells with JavaScript too?

~~~
ale22
You can get out of the box graphical output capabilities with javascript. So
you can start outputting things in HTML if necessary.

------
ManuelKiessling
I love the whole “bicycle of the mind metaphor”, but think about what it means
in the context of omnipresent smartphones: using a bike burns a lot less
calories than walking , so what does it do to our minds if for so many mental-
related things, instead of applying our mind to them the hard way, we use our
pocket computers?

What would it do to my body and my weight if for every meter I used to walk, I
would instead take the bike?

------
simonebrunozzi
This was a really great article. I particularly liked the "cultural" reference
at the end of this:

> 19/ “Computers are such a part of life that many people believe computers
> don’t invade their privacy…life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness is
> inevitably linked to a computer.”

> How’s that for east coast optimism?

------
bobbygoodlatte
I wonder what Steve might say about smart phones today.

They were intended to be bicycles of the mind, but perhaps they've become a
'gerbil wheel of the mind' for most consumers instead?

------
jsharf
They never thought to test a condor riding a bicycle. Sounds like flawed
experimental design

------
peter303
Even more so with the pocket smartphone.

