OPEN VCS, a lens for looking at models

Silver Bullets, getting something for nothing, getting everything you need, for nothing, magical thinking in general, perfect total information, and perfect interpretation…

Do you know anyone who believes in such things?

A few years ago a group of people on the same day, from a large AEC software developer, posted on LinkedIn a new idea they’d all apparently become interested in.

They all said:

if you put on AR goggles and look at digital twins, then you’ll acquire “instantaneous understanding” of a construction site.

Instantaneous understanding

Ha.

Gee.

That’s interesting.

It says nothing. But it puts a sign over the head of anyone saying it, flashing in neon:

I never worked on a construction site.
I never built a digital model of a building.
I never studied a digital model.
I never looked at a set of technical drawings.

They said it anyway.

In unison.

Half a dozen people from the same company on the same day.

Sure man. I’ll cut anybody some slack. Everyone says things that don’t make sense. All the time.

But this one’s a doozy. Really.

Instantaneous understanding.

Of a construction site.

Maybe software should be developed by different people.

I don’t know.

I’m just grabbing at straws.

Gotta come up with some idea about what’s wrong with software organizations. At this point anything’s possible.

About AEC software and two of its three primary forms of digital media: models and drawings, plus the mental model in formation behind them:

1. Mental models are always fuzzy
2. They’re sharpened through systematic visual close study (VCS)
3. 1 and 2 form an INTERPLAY that develops understanding beyond superficial (not ‘perfect’ understanding, but adequate)
4. Digital models mean nothing to anyone without 1, 2, and 3
5. Technical drawings are VCS equipment in traditional form
6. VCS FORM is evolving. TGN VCS is described here and is developing open source:
   https://tangerinefocus.com/visual-engagement-with-modeled-worlds/
7. Different people and disciplines create and engage different sets of VCS expressions for different purposes on a project
8. I make no absolute claims. There is no perfect method or system. I’m not holding my breath waiting for one. Understanding takes effort, study, reflection, and time. It is not instantaneous.
9. 1, 2, and 3 are true for the real world too and ordinary daily life in it. VCS expression happens there too but in simplified form:
   https://tangerinefocus.com/2023/07/28/real-and-modeled-reality-mental-models-views-tweeners-memory-wobble-and-my-kitchen-sink/

Maybe take the rose colored glass off?

Start to think again?

Think

Again

Fäders spår för Framtids Segrar

Fathers’ tracks for Future Victories