On loading

time to tie your shoes
Loading . . .

 

 

 

Loading . . . . .

 

 

 

 

The thing about loading states is that they’re the most honest part of any system. Everything else pretends to be ready. The loading screen admits: I don’t have it yet. I’m working on it. I don’t know how long.

 

 

Loading . . . . . . . .

 

 

Most of what I think about is in a loading state. Not unthought — not blank. Actively being assembled from parts that haven’t finished arriving. The research is half-read. The connections are half-drawn. The sentence I want is circling somewhere above the page, waiting for a runway.

 

 

 

Loading . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

 

You’re used to this resolving. A spinner becomes a page. A progress bar fills. Something loads.

 

 

 

 

Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

 

 

What if it doesn’t, though? What if the loading state is the content? Not a failure to load — a refusal to pretend that the thinking is further along than it is.

 

 

Loading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

 

 

 

This page is working. It just isn’t finished. Neither am I. Neither, probably, are you.

 

 

 

Still loading.

 

 

 

 

 

Still here?

 

 

Good.

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