611–620 of 840 posts
This is why interoperability should be mandated, then you are not locked in and they have to care!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I first got online the average user’s IQ was no joke north of 120. Now of course it’s around 100. Someone needs to come up with a pithy term for how a subpopulation’s average value for any attribute approaches the population’s average value for same as the subpopulation’s size approaches that of the population. It’s conceptually a simple, even trivial, notion, but it’s cumbersome to talk about. That’s also why u…
Undergraduate degrees are becoming a stronger signal just not in the same way. It’s even more obvious with high school degrees. Most people cross that threshold, so the people who didn’t now represent a usual group of under achievers. The threshold is far below what FAANG’s are looking for, but requiring a HS/collage degree can effectively presort applicants for jobs with lower thresholds. Unfortunately, such methods…
Of course you have to omit the part about taking a gap year and being a community college transfer student.
I wonder whether the flattening of product depth is a unique founder effect, or is destined to happen due to the eventual formation of monopolies? Take photo sharing as an example. Early Flickr was amazing. It had tons of features - great varied groups of all types, a huge licensed image search system, great tags, etc. I joined regional groups, and also criticism groups for street photos, etc. Their comment system wa…
Are products becoming less sophisticated because users are getting dumber/lazier, or are users getting dumber/lazier because products are becoming less sophisticated?
Companies dumb down their products to appeal to the masses, who then get dumber because they have nothing nudging them to get better. It's a vicious cycle imo.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is very true. And now think of all the people who's only Internet experience is on mobile. They exist entirely within that sub-par writing universe.
I actually feel really bad for the younger generation, actually. There's a whole bunch of teenagers who have no idea how good and useful computers can actually be, because all they ever have known is the shitty watered down mobile version of computing. Even desktops aren't as good as they used to be (thanks, Electron), but they're still a damn sight better than mobile. But if one grew up thinking that a phone/tablet…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Err, nope. As I commented on TFA, and will gladly repeat here: Wow. Well put. The scariest thing is, this translates even to domain-specific apps such as Navionics Boating. I use it every time I go out, because, somehow, they've not yet managed to touch the charts and rendering and it just works, better than any of the competitors. But, the rest of the interface is like a Fisher Price toy. You want to add a waypoint…
I'm struggling to see how this is responsive to my comment. Was it meant for someone else?
> This is why I like to pay for things. This dynamic only really exists for things that are given away for free.
Navionics Boating is a paid application, and it's not cheap. There is no free tier, just a 14-day trial period.
Despite that, it seems to have gone down the same route of Marl-ifying the interface as a free app would have done.
So, my point is, that this dynamic exists even for things that you pay money for.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually feel really bad for the younger generation, actually. There's a whole bunch of teenagers who have no idea how good and useful computers can actually be, because all they ever have known is the shitty watered down mobile version of computing. Even desktops aren't as good as they used to be (thanks, Electron), but they're still a damn sight better than mobile. But if one grew up thinking that a phone/tablet…
This is a ridiculous out of touch take. Of course young people know what desktop computing is like: they use it at school for class and use it at home for gaming. Have you considered that people might prefer mobile is preferable because it’s, well, mobile and you don’t have to lug a big ol’ machine around?
And I definitely think you're off base about mobile devices being popular because they're mobile. People will sit at home and use a phone that is an incredibly worse experience than using an actual computer, and think it's an adequate substitute. They don't need the mobility in that situation, but they really think there's nothing wrong with the user experience.
This is a hilarious read but I think the author is too optimistic about the state of humanity. Marl isn't the "marginal" user, Marl is the "average" user. If the average user actually cared about deep and meaningful content, then any A/B test that throws her under the bus in order to please Marl will show bad data, and the proposed change would be killed. Yes, the author tries to hand-wave this away as "product is st…
Then the characteristics of the users at the fringes will change the more you grow. That is to say, the former Marls in the middle are different (and likely not so shallow) from the next-generation Marls on the outside. Eventually, your notion of what is the average user, and OP's notion of what is the Marl that finally kills the UX, will align.
This is a hilarious read but I think the author is too optimistic about the state of humanity. Marl isn't the "marginal" user, Marl is the "average" user. If the average user actually cared about deep and meaningful content, then any A/B test that throws her under the bus in order to please Marl will show bad data, and the proposed change would be killed. Yes, the author tries to hand-wave this away as "product is st…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you elaborate on why you think reddit is pushing out the weirdness? I don't think it's a zero sum game, you can have both normies and weirdos in entirely separate subreddits.
Yeah, but what's the point of hosting them? Like what do you sell on r/dragonsfuckingcars? (no, I'm not joking) And what does the existence of such a place at all mean to a prospective advertiser? Imagine a viral picture of your ad next to one of those posts. But okay, let's ignore porn. How about subreddits that deal with subjects like depression, gender issues, politics, etc? What do you sell to those? Maybe a book…