Pomegranate Seeds

Just before the start of Rosh Hashanah, I found myself standing over a kitchen sink. To my left, two pomegranates sat next to a large stainless steel knife atop a cutting board. Ahead of me, resting in the sink, was a bowl brimming with water.

To harvest the seeds of a pomegranate, you first cut the fruit into quarters. These wedges are then submerged in water, where you basically fidget with the fruit until the segments detach. The red, semi-translucent seeds sink to the bottom of the bowl while the white-brown excess floats to the top to be conveniently discarded.

On this particular afternoon, I was in a bit of a rush: I needed seeds quickly. I threw a couple wedges into the bowl, and started working on one of them. I finished the wedge and tossed the skin aside.

Without really looking around, I reached out, unfocused, into the waters of the bowl. After a few seconds, I paused and stared down at the pomegranate in my hands.

I hadn’t put any thought into the motion. I reached out my hand, and must have been subconsciously tracking the movement of the wedge. Completely on instinct, I had found a second wedge.

The experience was so seamless it left me mildly startled, observing it after the fact.

Some keyboard-based programs give the feeling of interfacing directly with technology, a near echo of the instinctive feeling of working with your hands. VR and AR aren’t there yet, but the applications are fairly self-evident.

Startlingly seamless is a good experience to aim for as developers.