As someone who has lived both primarily outside and primarily inside, my preference for categories, for putting things in boxes, has a direct connection with my willingness to put myself in a box (i.e. a "room" in a "building", box in a box).
Likewise, most software/computer interfaces I know are pretty focused on putting things in boxes. For one thing, the screen is a small rectangle, and everything has to fit into a smaller rectangle in that rectangle.
Even the title "how we sort the world" implies that categories are the central element and that they can be sorted.
Nouns are the "real" thing, and verbs are transitory.
However, when you live outside, spend both days and nights without walls to encase you, my perspective flipped. Verbs became the important thing. It doesn't matter what the weather is, there is always weather, what matters is how it is changing.
A verb-centric world, where the nouns are always in transition.
Look, I like central heating and indoor plumbing. I live in a box these days. But I also remember how it was to live outside walls.
Likewise, most software/computer interfaces I know are pretty focused on putting things in boxes. For one thing, the screen is a small rectangle, and everything has to fit into a smaller rectangle in that rectangle.
Even the title "how we sort the world" implies that categories are the central element and that they can be sorted.
Nouns are the "real" thing, and verbs are transitory.
However, when you live outside, spend both days and nights without walls to encase you, my perspective flipped. Verbs became the important thing. It doesn't matter what the weather is, there is always weather, what matters is how it is changing.
A verb-centric world, where the nouns are always in transition.
Look, I like central heating and indoor plumbing. I live in a box these days. But I also remember how it was to live outside walls.