About this lab notebook
Hi. I'm Jess Martin.
I'm an applied researcher investigating the future of computing. My primary work involves discovering and disseminating generalizable insights into the nature of the computational medium. This lab notebook is an effort to deepen and clarify my own thinking while publishing it a form that can be consumed by others.
Broadly, my research is towards enabling computers to help us think better, together. More specifically, I focus on three broad areas:
- Real-time collaboration, or Computers should enable robust collaborative experiences
- Knowledge representation, or Computers should represent knowledge using models and simulations
- Computers as mediums for thinking, or Computers are a platform for tools for thinking
The Research Pipeline
Open Questions ➡️ Intuitive Insights ➡️ Experimental Systems ➡️ Observations ➡️ Generalizable Insights (source)
I've organized my Lab Notebook around the above pipeline:
- Evergreen Notes: I follow a form of Evergreen Note-taking: Notes represent durable knowledge objects, deeply interlinked, with minimal narrative, focused on asserting and supporting specific claims. Evergreen Notes contain the seeds of Intuitive Insights that need nurturing.
- Projects: a list of projects that I am working on or have worked on. A source of insights and a breeding ground for Experimental Systems.
- Open Questions I'm Pondering is sort of a switchboard for Good Questions, which are an essential ingredient in research.
- Intuitive Insights is a list of insights I've had about systems that await embodiment in an Experimental System.
- Experimental Systems is a list of Experimental Systems that I've worked on in the past or am building now.
- Resources, People, and Systems are notes on influential researchers and software systems that have shaped computing over the decades.
Why publish these notes?
I'm writing these notes mostly for myself, so why publish them?
- These notes primarily serve to guide my own process of discovery, as detailed above in the Research Pipeline.
- I publish in order to share what I'm learning, in the hope that some of these "results" may inspire others.
- Increasing my luck surface area: serendipity, chance encounters, Signal flare is a public artifact that attracts like-minded thinkers.
- Something to link to: enable better conversations with "fellow travelers" as I can link to specific notes in our conversations and allows them to explore my thinking asynchronously.
About this lab notebook
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About this lab notebook
The Research Pipeline
Why publish these notes?