𝘁𝗼𝗸𝗶 𝗹𝗶 𝗻𝗮𝘀𝗮 𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗮

For those that don’t speak Toki Pona, this means “communicate is tough”. I’ve been interested for a long time by how to communicate easily. I tried (unsuccessfully) to join the Dublin Esperanto society in 2001 (for those not in the know Esperanto was a made up language created in 1887 to be the second language for international communication)

I recently ran into Toki Pona which was created in 2001 and has 137 words in it’s vocabulary. For reference English has about 170,000 words in current use.

We’ve got a range of between 137 and 170,000 words to communicate. From someone who works on human computer interfaces (i.e. the web) I find it endlessly fascinating how difficult it is to do this communication well even with 170,000 words.

Understanding the intent of people online, communicating how to achieve the job they want to do and creating an interface that makes this possible for mutual benefit remains a tough proposition (however, I’m glad I have more than 137 words to communicate with).

Looking forward to more of these cool challenges and new interfaces 😀