The co-creator of Seinfeld, and star of “Curb your enthusiasm” as the latest, greatest interaction design guru? Well, sort-of…

On social software:

“David relishes everyday ambiguities, like the one that arose over the question of who would pay for the meal with the notable and his wife. ‘You know, if I don’t pick up that check, this guy’s never gonna talk to me again,’ he said. ‘And I’m not picking up the check, ’cause he invited me out to dinner!

‘Every relationship is just so tenuous and precarious,’ he went on. ‘One tiny miscommunication or mistake and it could be all over. I’m talking about siblings! A Thanksgiving thing that somehow goes wrong—bringing the wrong dish—all of a sudden, sisters aren’t talking after forty-five years!’

On ethnography, sort-of:

“He leafed through the notebook. ‘Most of the ideas stink,’ he said. ‘But you’d be surprised. See, a lot of these I’ll use, not as a big story but like a little piece of filler. And then all of a sudden it somehow leads into something.’

On interaction design, sort-of:

“When the time comes to begin writing the new season, David scans his notebook for possibilities. ‘He’ll go through the notebook and find three or four stories and extrapolate them to worst-case,’ Weide says. ‘He starts to weave them together. Sometimes you can brainstorm ideas with him—you can even pitch B stories to him. He’s used stories from Larry Charles and me. Cheryl got a story in there. And then he just sits down and sweats it out.'”

» The NewYorker: ANGRY MIDDLE-AGED MAN by James Kaplan
[via The LMG]