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How Buildings LearnBook

by Stewart Brand, 1994

Who uses, recommends or left How Buildings Learn, in their own words: each a verbatim quote with a link to where it was said.

2 people

Research Fellow at the Astera Institute, writes on existential risk, metascience and tools for thought
loved

One of my favourite examples is this image of Stewart Brand inside the shipping container where he wrote his marvellous book "How Buildings Learn":

Discussing real-making in creative work, in his notes on Luhrmann's book

2026-05-08·michaelnotebook.com ↗

Author, programmer, musician. Founder of CD Baby. Publishes rated notes on every book he reads.
liked

I’ve read this book three times since 1999, and gifted it many times to others. It’s changed the way I look at buildings. I read it again now because I’m building a new house. Its main idea is that all buildings are predictions, and all predictions are wrong, so design to make them easy to change. I think of it metaphorically in life: assuming my predictions about what I want will probably be w…

Rated 9/10 on his public book-notes list.

2021-08-02·sive.rs ↗

Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.

The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.

What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:

Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.