OP and co-founder of Potential here, AMA!
iOS 15 Humane
381–390 of 496 posts
Re: iOS 15 Humane
#382Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s because the internet is no longer a walk through the woods. It’s now a stumble through a confusing poorly-lit casino.
Well said. 100% agreement. Last year, I found myself in an unusually unhappy place. Partly COVID lockdowns, partly changes at work, partly politics (US resident). My wife noticed and told me to get off Facebook/Twitter/etc - they were making me visibly agitated. As I weaned myself off those platforms, my happiness and stress levels improved. I'm glad to be (mostly) off the platforms. It's been a massive improvement.…
> Facebook was the biggest culprit. I unfriended anybody I didn't know in meatspace.
I stopped using it because I was getting cross-ways with people I otherwise highly respected, over political comments which invited open disagreement. I didn't want to be at odds with these people, but Facebook has designed the service to facilitate this, and has engineered the degradation of personal relationships because of it.
That's strike one. We all know how to avoid difficult conversations in real life, because we can feel them creeping up on us, and we change the subject. On social media, you state the whole argument, and then people feel free to do the same, and put their spin on it.
For thousands of years, people have ebbed and flowed through life, met new people, and stopped seeing others. A very large part of the problem with Facebook is that it destroys this natural flow of life, and tempts you to connect with every human being you've ever said 2 words to, and then keep that connection forever.
That's strike two. When you compare this situation to how humans have lived for thousands of years, it's an almost-grotesque abrogation of the natural order of things. There are relationships that SHOULD fade away, and others you should ACTIVELY eliminate once you know where they really stand. All social media platforms are designed to treat your follower number as the end-all-be-all sacred metric.
I don't have a strike three. That was enough for me.
Re: iOS 15 Humane
#383Meanwhile, today Microsoft gifted us a brand new "News & interests" area in the taskbar lobbying for our focus and attention. Successfully... I even had to google how to turn it off, and write this comment.
horrible. Same as the news infinite scroll in the Google iOS app
Re: iOS 15 Humane
#384Earlier quoted context omitted.
This has to be the least charitable reading of Crazyontap's comment. Couldn't you have just inserted the implied: > I was just talking to a friend the other day on how badly Apple and Google are trying their best to kill curiosity and creativity [with regard to the computer they're using]. Also: > So please, enough with this narrative, it’s really outdated and based on such a limited world view. You'll have to explai…
Creative professionals gained immensely through Apple's approach. If I'm a music producer, a film maker, a writer, a graphic designer, and so on, I gain immensely from a computer that just works 99% of the time. I don't need or want to spend time on thinking what's the best set of drivers I should install, or worrying about all the dependencies of this new open source program with no hint of UX-design I've just insta…
I program DSP software, but I find DaVinci Resolve SUPER daunting. I completely agree (and am also a Mac user, for what that's worth)
There are so many domains where you can dive incredibly deeply into 'em. Some of them are computer augmented, and benefit from a stable, predictable computer host. There's been a lot of instances over the years where Macs served that role of 'creativity toaster' and did it well… now we've got the same thing, except for phones.
Anybody who's used to that situation doesn't find the status of iPhone ecology shocking. A bargain is being made. Or a service is being hired, from effectively a computer administrator.
Re: iOS 15 Humane
#385Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's well past midnight, I've been interacting with apps designed to maximize 'user engagement' since 8 PM. I don't have coherent thoughts, I'm opening irrelevant tabs habitually. This is not healthy. I have a problem. That problem is mindless browsing, and it feels engineered. Not saying you're wrong, just that your ideas don't work for me.
That’s because the internet is no longer a walk through the woods. It’s now a stumble through a confusing poorly-lit casino.
We'll make a wall with attention poetry and this will be on it
Re: iOS 15 Humane
#386Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s because the internet is no longer a walk through the woods. It’s now a stumble through a confusing poorly-lit casino.
Reminds me of the song, "Welcome to the Internet": "Could I interest you in everything All of the time A bit of everything All of the time Apathy's a tragedy And boredom is a crime Anything and everything All of the time"
Excerpt from a poetry slam I did 2 years ago:
What are we paying, when we're paying attention?
We pay with what we could've done and what we could've learned. We pay with the people we could've met, and the conversations we could have had.
We pay with every future us, that we could've been, We pay with the values we did not live by, We pay with the goals we did not reach, We pay with every opportunity to become more fully alive, that is now gone.
We pay with the moments of joy that never happened, We pay with the peaceful sleep, and the refreshed feeling in the morning, that we didn't get.
Because we were busy paying... attention.
Re: iOS 15 Humane
#387[deleted]
Re: iOS 15 Humane
#388Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's well past midnight, I've been interacting with apps designed to maximize 'user engagement' since 8 PM. I don't have coherent thoughts, I'm opening irrelevant tabs habitually. This is not healthy. I have a problem. That problem is mindless browsing, and it feels engineered. Not saying you're wrong, just that your ideas don't work for me.
I did the same thing for years, mindlessly browsing well past a sane hour. What changed is I started going to bed early and getting up early, before the sun rises. I still browse mindlessly on occasion, but my after-coffee morning browsing is a lot more directed than my drowsy evening browsing.
for me listening to audiobooks, music or podcasts is really helpful to keep the mind stimulated but slowly wind down in the evening
Re: iOS 15 Humane
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another peak self-absorbed Hacker News comment, in which we learn that curiosity only means tinkering with devices, learning how they work to the bits, plus some random Linux thrown in. This comment is ignoring that a device that does all that without you having to worry about how it works is a tool way more powerful than one in which you need to at least know how to build everything from scratch with an enormous lea…
I think you are mixing up "not having to worry about how it works" with "having the freedom to tinker". We should demand both. One reason is for our curiosity. The other is to have checks and balances on the big companies.
The big companies have all the technical resources, and profoundly strong motivation, to apply their own malware and harm the user.
You do NOT check and/or balance big companies by allowing them the freedom to tinker alongside the little guy. They will wrest the machines to their purposes every time, and they are Not Happy about obstacles in their path.
Having checks and balances on big companies is a very good argument but it points the opposite direction from how you're seeing it…
Re: iOS 15 Humane
#390This is an aspect of a very important movement that started with Calm Technology. Think it will be the next step in gaining control of the genie from the bottle.
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Calm-Technology-Principles-Patterns-N...