24: Linus Lee - Engineering for Aliveness
Dialectic
Instrumental vs. Engaged Tools
- Distinguish between instrumental tools for quick results and engaging tools for deep involvement.
- Recognize that the choice depends on the individual, moment, and task, not inherent user types or task requirements.
I'm realizing that Enzyme sits at this intersection of tools that want you to become more engaged, whereas there are certain tools like question answering tools that are designed to give you the output as quickly as possible. A browser interface is one that has a subset of interactions which are oriented in that latter core category of giving you the answers as quickly as possible. But the browser as a whole is something that brings you into deeper engagement with something that you're currently exploring.
Enzyme, on the other hand, because it is serving a conversational exploration, the way that it serves the user's interests best is to make their ideas and their story something that can feel like they can sing and make them want to engage with that in a deeper way. And conversation isn't for summarization and information gathering necessarily. Conversation is to explore ideas that you aren't really sure that you want to believe yet and you want to be convinced that you can spend more time and energy exploring those things.
