Glass Maze Every jumbled pile of person

The Power of Limits

Bob Frankston’s fascinating history of the development of VisiCalc describes the simple, brilliant technique they used to vet their design:

In addition to prototyping, Dan put together a reference card for users. If we couldn’t figure out how to explain a feature on the reference card we would change the program. The original method for copying formulas was too complicated so we just changed the design rather than try to explain it.

These guys didn’t just have to invent the whole idea of a spreadsheet. They also had to find a way to fit it into what passed for home-computing state of the art at the time: 32K of memory, a 2MHz processor, 40 columns and 24 rows of screen real estate. And yet they decided to impose another constraint on themselves: until they could explain these revolutionary new concepts in the space of a single reference card, they weren’t done.

Which is to say: draconian limits, both environmental and self-imposed, led to a better design: one whose basic precepts are still in use to this day.

I think that says something pretty profound about the power, and the importance, of limits.

I remember VisiCalc, and the immense sense of possibility it engendered! Thanks for posting this – it already feels like history.