Have I really already completed two days of grad school? Have I really only completed two days of grad school?

Surely, it’s not Tuesday already. And surely, it’s not only Tuesday?

I am just beginning to understand how this is going to rock my world. My life as I knew it before, my life as it was last week, is gone. What mattered last week matter’s little now.

You may think I’m being melodramatic. I’m not.

Searching for a Clue

In contrast to my previous conversation with JZ when I said I didn’t know what I wanted to do after the program, and I couldn’t yet define interaction design, where JZ seemed a bit perturbed, Dick said “it’s good not to know things.”

I embrace this statement, because there is a lot I don’t know, and also because tonight, as a homework assignment that’s due tomorrow, a homework assignment I have not yet started, we have to find a product and identify three distinctive kinds of data about that product, and write a short paper.

But what is data?

Dick said data is “evidence that interaction has taken place.” However, this does not fit my definition and thus puts me in a strange place.

Further, he said, “Interaction is a relationship (W) between X in a process of Y toward a goal or a purpose of Z.”

W = data
X = things, people, environment (what)
Y = how it takes place (how)
Z = principal, value (why)

Despite having this formula, it’s not clear to me what data is. Data is a relationship? Data is evidence? I only have vague notions about how these are compatible? But I’m confident that before I go to sleep, there will be a paper, which I have produced, that offers my best guess.

It’s likely that my best guess will be blown out of the water tomorrow. I can’t wait.

Mastering Connections

The first thing Dick said was that our masters is a mastery in making connections. This can have many interpretations. I don’t know if it’s what he meant, but in the past two days, mastering connections has meant having a beer with my peers and talking about design, and feeling connected, finally, to an entire group of people who share the same intrigue and passion.

It’s a beautiful thing.