Tinkering: We know more than we can tell

Interesting post from futurist Alex Soojung-Kim Pang on tinkering as a way of knowing from a recent conference sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation. On tinkering:

You can define tinkering in part in contrast to other activities. Mitch Resnick, for example, talks about how traditional technology-related planning is top-down, linear, structured, abstract, and rules-based, while tinkering is bottom-up, iterative, experimental, concrete, and object-oriented. (Resnick is very big on creating toys that invite tinkering.)

Along with game designer Jane McGonigal, who spoke at the IdeaFestival recently, he works out of the Institute for the Future.

The kind of iterative learning Soojung-Kim Pang references pulls knowledge from our limbs. We know more than we can tell.

Wayne

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[Alex Soojung-Kim Pang]

You might also be interested in another piece on tinkering and the future, published in issue 22 of Vodafone Receiver Magazine, at http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/tinkering-to-the-future. It's something of a sequel to my notes on the Carnegie conference.