Szymon Kaliski

This is a collection of my half-formed thoughts, my digital garden.

The system contains 159 public notes, a subset of what I use in my personal knowledge management system.

Interesting places to start could be collections on: End-User Programming, Future Of Coding, Learning, or Cybernetics.

Notes below are grouped by last edit time.

2025-11

  1. Simulator13

2025-10

  1. Open Questions Around LLM Interfaces10

2025-09

  1. "Learning to Program" and LLMs6
  2. Dynamic Documents1
  3. Future Of Coding26
  4. LLM1
  5. Programming System1
  6. VPL8
  7. VPLs and LLMs4

2024-09

  1. Programmable Ink5
  2. Solving Things Visually8

2024-08

  1. Tuple Space2
  2. Understanding Through Building9

2024-07

  1. Optimising for Fewer Interactions2

2024-05

  1. Computer Literacy3
  2. Examples of Tools Shaping the Outcomes6
  3. Lambda Encoding0
  4. Live-Programming Issues11
  5. Programming as a Specific Case of a Bigger Problem3
  6. Strive to Have Balanced Days1
  7. Visualizing the Problem Domain is More Useful than Visualizing the Program Shape4

2024-04

  1. Canvas for Programming7
  2. Computational DAGs1
  3. Cybernetics7
  4. Each Extension is an Amputation7
  5. End-User Programming Self-Hosted Systems are in Tension with Direct Manipulation4
  6. End-User Programming vs Programming6
  7. Extended Phenotypes3
  8. Tools for Novelty13

2024-02

  1. Data not Apps3
  2. Fidelity of The Tool Should be Proportional to The Maturity of The Idea2
  3. Live-Coding1
  4. Live-Programming3
  5. Why Do We Do Things?8
  6. Working with the Material5
  7. Zeigarnik Effect7

2024-01

  1. Mastering Tools2

2023-12

  1. Computer Science Positivism6
  2. Deliberate Practice11
  3. Design Science Research5
  4. Leave Room for Errors5
  5. Linguistic Determinism2
  6. Tools Building Us3

2023-03

  1. Neighbour Computing3

2023-01

  1. Research Themes8

2022-12

  1. End-Users Reuse Code by Cloning Instead of Starting from Scratch1

2022-08

  1. Computationalism2

2022-07

  1. Bret Victor's Thesis13
  2. Second-Order Tool Building2
  3. The Incredible Power of The Right Interface10

2022-05

  1. Strive for Greatness5

2022-04

  1. Amplifying Strengths can be More Productive than Improving Weaknesses3
  2. Be Honest with Yourself8
  3. Enjoy the Journey6
  4. Fixating on Solution Aesthetics can Lead to Solving Wrong Problems7
  5. Where Do Ideas Come From?11
  6. Writing Was Invented for Pragmatic Reasons4

2022-03

  1. Design Science3
  2. Information Aesthetics4

2022-02

  1. Play Your Own Games8
  2. Thinking About Thinking Requires Something to Think About8
  3. VPL Issues2

2022-01

  1. Dynamic Medium3
  2. Engineering vs Science1
  3. Epistemic Actions6
  4. Feedback Loops in Research are Long3
  5. Filesystem as Database1
  6. Idea Hooks0
  7. Metacognition and Debugging5
  8. Modes2
  9. No Chrome4
  10. Pixel Space and Tools7
  11. Short-Sightedness in Software1
  12. Thinking and Time5

2021-12

  1. WYSIWYG is a Form of Naive Realism1

2021-10

  1. Strive to be Well Rounded2

2021-09

  1. Avoid "Spooky Action at a Distance" in Software1
  2. Craft Comes from Repetition3
  3. Creative Work is Often Nonlinear3
  4. Tools as Collaborators3

2021-08

  1. Recipes are not Programs1

2021-07

  1. Domain Experts Shouldn't be Limited by Developer Time4
  2. End-User Programming8
  3. Programming Tools and People's Needs4
  4. Spreadsheet for End-User Programming Might be a Wrong Model4

2021-06

  1. Achieving Cognitive Fit is Easier than Social Fit1
  2. Cognitive Medium9
  3. Following Genuine Interests Forms Positive Feedback Loops6
  4. Gradual Enhancement3
  5. Ladder Of Abstraction2
  6. New Ideas Should be Oversaturated3
  7. Places in Software6
  8. Tensions8
  9. Time and Experimentation4
  10. Working in the Dynamic Medium4

2021-05

  1. Working with Copies2

2021-04

  1. Novelty Search1
  2. Re-engagement in Knowledge4

2021-03

  1. Browsing vs Searching1
  2. Community in Research1
  3. Embodied Cognition3
  4. Great Thoughts3
  5. Peripheral Vision in Software5
  6. Self-Cybernetics3
  7. Sequences of Static Snapshots0

2021-02

  1. Canvas for Thinking5
  2. Constructionism3
  3. Creating-Curating7
  4. End-User Programming Should be Task-Oriented1
  5. Extended Mind7
  6. Knowledge Work Should Accrete3
  7. Links2
  8. Look for Opposite Views Instead of Confirming Ones3
  9. Notes Should Serve a Purpose3
  10. Second-Order Cybernetics6
  11. Situated Cognition5
  12. Thinking by Writing7
  13. Thinking with Zettelkasten4

2021-01

  1. DAG and Tree Representations of Code5
  2. Data Layer1
  3. Fractality of Software Tools2
  4. Syntopic Reading4

2020-12

  1. Bicycle for the Mind4
  2. CLI UX3
  3. Cognition Shape3
  4. Confirmation Bias0
  5. Connectionism3
  6. Connections are Usually Better than Taxonomies3
  7. Constructivism0
  8. Conversation Theory1
  9. Design Methods Movement1
  10. Dialog Across Time3
  11. Dialog in UI2
  12. Do Your Own Thinking3
  13. Downtime2
  14. Dynabook1
  15. E-Prime0
  16. Edit-Commit2
  17. Environments not App Pickers0
  18. Genetic Epistemology1
  19. Grey Thinking1
  20. Handling History in Software2
  21. Ideating-Authoring3
  22. Improvements vs Breakthroughs3
  23. Learning9
  24. Memex3
  25. Memex and My Limits3
  26. Note Titles Becoming Abstractions3
  27. Orientation in Fractal Software4
  28. Pencil and OS-level Doodling2
  29. Perceptual Control Theory3
  30. Reflective Practice3
  31. Research5
  32. Research and Day-to-Day3
  33. Rules for Visual Information Systems3
  34. Semiotics0
  35. Software Performance and Thinking3
  36. Understanding Requires Effort4
  37. Workshop vs Library2