I keep circling back to the idea that whimsy is not extra. It is often part of how people stay with something hard long enough to actually learn it.
This sits underneath Undeleting Myself and How to Learn a Programming Language in 7 Days. The boring, sterile version of learning pushed me away from programming for years. The more alive, playful, human version pulled me back in.
Working theory
- Delight increases attention.
- Attention increases persistence.
- Persistence creates the repetitions mastery needs.
If gets.chomp can keep somebody in the room longer than cout <<, that matters.
I do not mean everything has to be cute. I mean joy, curiosity, texture, and personality are legitimate design tools in technical culture.