Manovich describes and is able to put into concrete ideas what I have always kind of thought about the world with respect to media and computation - being the general idea of data and algorithms being like the most basic unit/building block of media and underlying everytihng. Especially because I have always been surrounded by very technical people while I myself do not have the “coding” gene, I have always marveled at how people are able to deduce problems into matters of numbers and algorithms. In a way I always thought of it more in the reverse of Manovich’s description, that all these large and complex forms of media and programs can be broken down all the way to the level of data input and algorithmic output, whereas Manovich kind of walks you through the idea starting with the data and how they work together to then build up to the final image, program, game, etc. I especially like his constant use of examples to support his ideas to make it a lot more relatable and easier to understand these super conceptual ideas he’s putting forth (especially the whole section on video game narrative). Another one of the most interesting topics to me was the idea of the interface being a more recently introduced, third element to exist that connects what’s going on behind the scenes versus what’s going on with the user, and therefore has a lot of control to affect the user outcomes.