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Optimizing for Feelings

browsercompany.substack.com

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Re: Optimizing for Feelings

#31

Post by protonbob »

I am very hopeful for this project. I feel like this article perfectly sums up how I feel like software should be and how it should feel to use and also life in general. Software should be a tool to use and enjoy, not something that optimizes to take more of our time.

Optimization has crept into our lives too much. Optimization of decision making that sucks the fun out of everything and makes activities inaccessible to anyone but those who want to optimize for it seems to be the predominant way of thinking. "How to optimize your YouTube channel for view, pick this $1000 bicycle wheel in order to optimize your efficiency by 1%.." I could go on forever. I joined the waitlist and I am excited to see what comes out of this project.

Re: Optimizing for Feelings

#32

Post by naravara »

Unfortunately I'm not sure people are even equipped to trust their own feelings anymore. Even in many spaces where people do have agency of how they're designed I've noticed a marked convergence in tastes and preferences over the years. We used to call it "Pinterest aesthetic" and now it's an Instagram or TikTok aesthetic but so many of the choices people make in lighting, styles of furniture, potted plants, and so on themselves feel kind of generic. Often like a cheap imitation of an aesthetic that predominates online. I don't know if this is a consequence of algorithmic recommendations tuning peoples' aesthetic sensibilities all in the same direction or if it's filtering down to the products on offer to where their options are all constrained. But it's depressing nevertheless.

Part of it could just be an age thing. As an elder-millennial I came of age during the peak of vintage/thrifting hipster culture. There was a pretty vibrant spirit of mixing and matching and putting things together from myriad influences before it all got blended into a generic paste of flannel and thick-rimmed eyeglasses.

Re: Optimizing for Feelings

#33

Post by pketh »

thaway2839 wrote: post #24
pketh wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure it exists in some form, but it's not currently a shipping product

I'm pretty sure people are actually using it.

A private beta is not what I’d consider a shipping product, but you may have a different definition of that

Re: Optimizing for Feelings

#34

Post by umeshunni »

I wish browser companies would just optimize for building a good browser.

When they have too much money and not enough ideas, they end up writing hipster manifestos and end up like Mozilla.

Re: Optimizing for Feelings

#35

Post by davidthewatson »

goatcode wrote: post #5
gorjusborg wrote: post #3

Oh hell yes. The concept that we do things based on our emotions will strike a certain type of individual as wrong, simply because they've become so used to looking at things like a machine. To that person I say: you are doing it right now. You are doing things based on your emotion, and it doesn't always feel... good, but it is how humans work. Humans are highly evolved organisms, and our emotions emerge from a vast…

Probably there are as many emotional reactions to some given aspect of software as there are people. How do you optimize for every individual?

Personas?

https://www.nngroup.com/topic/personas/

Re: Optimizing for Feelings

#38

Post by borroka »

bumby wrote: post #28
blueflow wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emotions are guidance, not binding. If you are not able to manage them on your own (an important aspect of adulthood), they will get into your way at some point in life. Yes, they are real, but acting on your emotions unconditionally is dangerous when you are in a position of responsibility or power.

A good piece of advice I've heard is that our goal should be to tune our intuitions so they can be reliable. Gut feelings are sometimes wrong and thus shouldn't be binding, but if we can improve their accuracy they can be extremely, extremely helpful. Is there evidence that we can train our intuitions? I'm reminded of the expert art assessor in Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink" who immediately knew a sculpture was a forgery…

Don't we also recognize a horse by "gut instinct" or intuition? It is not that the jot down notes to make up our mind between a horse and a zebra. What we instantaneously identify does not come from nowhere, it is that our pattern recognition happens below our conscience. And this move from conscious to other-than-conscious happens for any simple or complex skill, when the latter is of course properly practiced, which means, most often, a lot.

Is the example provided by Gladwell different from the instance of "something is off" that many of us had when we got to our home and something, a plant, a chair, or something barely noticeable like a medal, had been moved elsewhere, and we could not explain why our "off" button went off?

If many among us had spent a lot of time dealing with art and forged art we would have acquired, conditioned on our "talent", similar "gut feelings" with respect to original and forged art.

Re: Optimizing for Feelings

#39

Post by blooalien »

blueflow wrote: post #8
gorjusborg wrote: post #3

Oh hell yes. The concept that we do things based on our emotions will strike a certain type of individual as wrong, simply because they've become so used to looking at things like a machine. To that person I say: you are doing it right now. You are doing things based on your emotion, and it doesn't always feel... good, but it is how humans work. Humans are highly evolved organisms, and our emotions emerge from a vast…

Emotions are guidance, not binding. If you are not able to manage them on your own (an important aspect of adulthood), they will get into your way at some point in life. Yes, they are real, but acting on your emotions unconditionally is dangerous when you are in a position of responsibility or power.

I was raised to believe that emotions / "feelings" were something that happens to you (being human and all that) due to chemicals in your brain and body, and you cannot entirely control that aspect of things, but that your actions are indeed a thing you do have control over, and that falls entirely upon each individual human to control for themselves, despite any other factors such as emotion. While you may not easily be able to choose how you feel, you can choose what you do, and how you act or react. Emotion can as you say "guide", but cannot force your actions. That's all on you (or me, or anyone else).

I especially agree with your final statement there about the dangers when in a position of responsibility or "power". It's those times when people really should strive harder than usual to fall back on logic and facts despite any emotional reactions they may be leaning toward, although if the emotion they're feeling is "empathy", they might want to let at least a little of that leak through and "guide" their logical response to some degree.

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