bigideas

I just discovered Garfield Minus Garfield, a site whose joyously simple idea is to remove Garfield, and the things he says, from Garfield comic strips, leaving his owner seeming to mutter disjointedly to himself. There’s a rich existential seam running through much of it, but this recent one is straight out of Heidegger:

I often find myself having this kind of struggle with everyday objects, especially first thing in the morning, when the conflict between things being present-at-hand and being ready-at-hand seems weirdly appropriate. Here’s an old post by Matt Webb about mobile phone design that’s apposite. Try not to trip over anything.

(For those who were wondering, the title is a regular expression. It’s technology, granddad.)