Is this satire?
Is this real life? Yes, yes it is.
Interface Design with a Homeless person
51–60 of 107 posts
Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person
#52Being homeless myself I can say most homeless people I have met do it on choice. Not sure about the USA, but here in Tokyo people become homeless after realizing they are wasting their lives working for goals and objectives that benefit nobody. Eventually you realize you don't need most of the "commodities" and "comfort" of modern life. Maybe it is my engineering background speaking, but you learn to maximize output…
"Being homeless myself I can say most homeless people I have met do it on choice."
Not so much in the UK. Usually psychiatric illness or drug dependency coupled with a catastrophic loss of income. Perhaps the causes are different in different places. I understand your idea of freedom, but I'm sure you can stay free in a small room somewhere!
Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person
#53Being homeless myself I can say most homeless people I have met do it on choice. Not sure about the USA, but here in Tokyo people become homeless after realizing they are wasting their lives working for goals and objectives that benefit nobody. Eventually you realize you don't need most of the "commodities" and "comfort" of modern life. Maybe it is my engineering background speaking, but you learn to maximize output…
Off topic. But I am about to go to Tokyo within 1-2 months. I will stay in a hotel/whatever for maybe a week and then take the train to the outskirts and from there I will hike and camp. Would you have any tips of some sort? (I have my email in the profile)
Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person
#54The story seems to be untrue.. though there were no details of any design principles they talked about..
Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. And I think the experience and re-thinking interactions is more important than the specific design principles they talked about. In addition it shows how interface design is universal and how one can gain insight from even the most unlikely sources.
Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person
#55This rather confused me. Even more so because some of the details seem to being live edited. A cycle courier for legal documents that gets to read the documents. He crewed on a sub (initially im sure it said commanded) yet doesn't get on with computers yet even though he is homeless he knows about the square product, and also having never worked in design knows about Dieter Rams, someone with almost no designers I've…
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1997-09-25/news/sky-writer/fu...
Quite cultured and knowledgeable people can go off the rails a bit.
Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person
#56You must be new here.
Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know, I thought about this throughout the entire encounter. I wasn't sure if I could believe any of his stories. He seemed so genuine and so excited throughout the conversation that I gave him the benefit of the doubt. In terms of how much money I gave him, I decided that $100 was probably the minimum amount that could actually help him pursue the idea and as a college intern, I'm not sure I could have spared muc…
What are the odds that such guy would be given a chance to share a piece of himself like he did ? I really don't think the OP was naive. I think there should be more people like him. Y Combinator gave a chance to people who would never have a chance at seed investors or Angle investors. It appeared that YC found few very valuable gems though. Surprised ? You shouldn't because seed investors and Angel investors have s…
"What are the odds that such guy would be given a chance to share a piece of himself like he did ? I really don't think the OP was naive. I think there should be more people like him."
I didn't mean he was naive for what he did or for wanting the guy to succeed, even thinking he could. I simply thought he was naive to believe all of the stories the guy told about his great past.
Lots of homeless people tell fantasy stories about what they once were. A huge % of it is BS, though often based in enough reality to be believable.
Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person
#58Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person
#59Is this satire?
For a moment I thought it was. "Look, here in SF even homeless people are hipper than you (they know this designer you've never heard of)!". But after reading the comments here, it's clear OP is legit and means it seriously.
Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person
#60Am I the only one who found the whole thing extremely patronising? "A homeless man who could teach me something, who would've thought. I went to MIT!"