Abstract, intangible, specialized

There was a time when I marvelled at there being such thing as mathematicians — people who got paid to think on form! Later, I wondered what an abstract, intangible, specialized thing webdesign was. Then came, in quick succession, the surprise of a friend who wants to specialize in pricing; Donald Norman and Steve Krug, who got me thinking on usability; information design prodigy and gourmet Edward Tufte; Steven Johnson‘s assessment and critique of interface design; Peter Norville’s information architecture; Norville again, this time introducing me to findability; and now… now I’ve just been introduced to what could come to be called name theory by Marc Stiegler and his Introduction to Petname Systems paper.