https://twitter.com/workingdog_/status/1292940516548640774?s=21 this thread, i think, points to what we lose when our systems and databases aren’t modifiable by everyday users. it’s about the diversity of human experience, and a love of pen and paper, but i think the most important thing to note about the way pen and paper gets talked about here is that the people filling out the forms are free to scratch things out and file reasonable requests and modify things as really existing people and events shake up the ontologies of the processes they are tasked with using

On the flip side, it rarely works out for me to scratch out a field on a form. And I've done forms on paper a good amount. Somehow the database schema doesn't feel like the bottleneck in dealing with bureaucracies. I'll certainly cop to computers perpetuating existing power structures, but it feels a bit much to claim things were all kumbaya before them.

Great lateral thought to apply this to the world of databases! At the very least it is another case-in-point for the importance of "localism" for administrative purposes. Some of the best shelters I know of really typify this.

@Kartik Agaram definitely not my intention to argue in support of bureaucracies—just pointing out that you can get a lot of leeway forced into a system when users know in their hands that they can change it