5.2 Writing Equipment

Dwell on your work, not on your tools.

In embodied cognitive science, equipment mediates our actions on the world (Heidegger, 1927/1962; Winograd & Flores, 1987). Equipment serves as an intermediary between an agent’s body and an agent’s actions on the world. For example, the Chapter 2 scaffold presumes a writer uses pen or pencil as equipment.

Heidegger argued you do not experience equipment as objects in your world. Instead, you only experience the affordances which your equipment offers. “That with which our everyday dealings proximally dwell is not the tools themselves. On the contrary, that with which we concern ourselves primarily is the work” (Heidegger, 1927/1962, p. 99). Heidegger calls equipment’s invisibility readiness-to-hand.

Winograd and Flores (1987) argue readiness-to-hand shows direct engagement with your world; you only become aware of your equipment when the structural coupling between world, equipment, and agent breaks down. When your pen does not write smoothly, or when your computer keyboard has keys which stick, readiness-to-hand disappears – you suddenly become aware of your equipment.

You need to choose equipment – your pens, or pencils, or keyboards; your paper; your reference material – to maintain readiness-to-hand while you write. “A successful word processing device lets a person operate on the words and paragraphs displayed on the screen, without being aware of formulating and giving commands” (Winograd & Flores, 1987, p. 164). The invisibility of artifacts – readiness-to-hand – signals good design (Dourish, 2001; Norman, 1998, 2002, 2004). When you choose your writing equipment, you design your writing world; you strive for your design to achieve readiness-to-hand.

Writing equipment offers affordances which depend on both bodies and worlds. For example, the dimensions of objects you write upon constrain writing. Jack Kerouac’s novel On the road provides one famous example (Kerouac, 1957). Kerouac composed on his typewriter. Being forced to replace typewriter paper disrupted Kerouac’s readiness-to-hand, interrupting his creative flow. Kerouac scaffolded his creative flow by taping together paper sheets to create a 120-foot scroll on which he typed. The scroll eliminated paper-changing interruptions. Chapter 2 offered a more mundane example by advising you to use small index cards in order to restrict how much you can write when you create outline cards. The smaller your world, the shorter you write.

Equipment belongs to the world in which you write. However, embodied cognitive scientists view your world as part of your mind. Your chosen equipment determines not only how you write, but also determines your writing mind. What choices can you make when designing your writing mind?