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← People and their mental models

Nikita Prokopov's mental models

4 claims Nikita Prokopov made fit 4 mental models. Most often: Affordances and signifiers, Second-order thinking, Signalling. Everything they said here.

Models we see in what they say

Our reading: their claim applies the idea without naming it. The claim is theirs; filing it here is ours.

Affordances and signifiers

An interface should show what can be done and where, and give people a model of how it works.

Used by 11 others

Human-interface design principles from decades ago remain valid because human cognition hasn't changed.

  1. Nikita Prokopov Programmer and designer who writes at tonsky.me But the principles-as long as they are good principles-still apply, because they are based on how humans work, not how computers work. It’s hard to justify Tahoe iconstonsky.me · 5 Jan 2026All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsBut the principles-as long as they are good principles-still apply, because they are based on how humans work, not how computers work.

    ↗It’s hard to justify Tahoe iconstonsky.me

    5 Jan 2026

Second-order thinking

Ask "and then what?": follow a decision past its first effect to the ones that come after.

Used by 86 others

Making programming easier for more people has caused software to become bloated, slow and hard to manage.

  1. Nikita Prokopov Programmer and designer who writes at tonsky.me Компьютеры стали бытовым прибором, начать программировать легче, чем когда-либо, сложнейшие вещи делаются просто и даже тривиально, написаны горы готового кода. К сожалению, у этого есть и обратная сторона - программы становятся большими, медленными, неуправляемыми, непонимаемыми. Podcast: На Маке нет никаких шкафов @ Думаем дальшеtonsky.me · 15 Jan 2026All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsКомпьютеры стали бытовым прибором, начать программировать легче, чем когда-либо, сложнейшие вещи делаются просто и даже тривиально, написаны горы готового кода. К сожалению, у этого есть и обратная сторона - программы становятся большими, медленными, неуправляемыми, непонимаемыми.

    ↗Podcast: На Маке нет никаких шкафов @ Думаем дальшеtonsky.me

    15 Jan 2026

Signalling

Much of what people do is a message about themselves, and a signal is believed only when it costs something to send.

Used by 15 others

Polished UI is a reasonable signal that a team invested comparable effort in the underlying code quality.

  1. Nikita Prokopov Programmer and designer who writes at tonsky.me Users can't see the code, so UI is the only way for them to judge the quality of the app. If UI looks good, that means developers had time to polish it, which means that they probably spent a comparable amount of time to iron out the code. Every Frame Perfecttonsky.me · 13 Jun 2026All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsUsers can't see the code, so UI is the only way for them to judge the quality of the app. If UI looks good, that means developers had time to polish it, which means that they probably spent a comparable amount of time to iron out the code.

    ↗Every Frame Perfecttonsky.me

    13 Jun 2026

Value moves to what stays scarce

When something becomes cheap and plentiful, the value moves to whatever is still rare next to it.

Used by 59 others

If every element in an interface is marked as distinct, none of them actually stand out.

  1. Nikita Prokopov Programmer and designer who writes at tonsky.me To stand out, things need to be different. But if everything has an icon, nothing stands out. It’s hard to justify Tahoe iconstonsky.me · 5 Jan 2026All korrents from this piece
    Their wordsTo stand out, things need to be different. But if everything has an icon, nothing stands out.

    ↗It’s hard to justify Tahoe iconstonsky.me

    5 Jan 2026