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Interface Design with a Homeless person

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Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#101

Post by naner »

weego wrote: post #20

This 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…

I lived in Atlanta for about 10 years and had many encounters with homeless people. I've had them knock on my front door, approach me in the grocery store, come talk to me when my car broke down, etc. Most of the time, of course, they just approached me on the street.

The most successful homeless guys that were reasonably cognizant had a story. (Interesting note: the few female homeless people I encountered all had apparent mental problems.) Sometimes it was a story about their amazing life that took a turn for the worse through no fault of their own, sometimes it was about some tragedy that had recently befallen them or a family member, sometimes it was an "emergency" they needed help with, sometimes it was just a quick tale to build rapport...

This sounds a bit harsh but they are all con men. That's how you survive on the streets. I would not be surprised if literally every tale that I heard was completely fabricated.

That's not to say they are all liars or you shouldn't help the homeless, but the smart ones adapt to their situation quite well.

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#104

Post by kylebrown »

rwhitman wrote: post #84

What this guy didn't say is that he figured out an alternative occupation - wandering the streets of san francisco saying intelligent things to young middle class people in the hopes that they will give him disproportionate handouts. I've encountered this more than a few times when I lived in Berkeley. I think its a technique thats somewhat endemic to the bay area homeless population.

The assumption I didn't appreciate, even more than "even MIT_hacker can learn something from the homeless", was that Larry "could easily get a job at a bike shop." The OP should read the recent article in Rolling Stone, The Sharp Sudden Decline of America's Middle Class.

But it does sound like there's a demand from the upper-class for urban guide-service through Tenderloin.

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#106

Post by rwhitman »

kylebrown wrote: post #104
rwhitman wrote: post #84

What this guy didn't say is that he figured out an alternative occupation - wandering the streets of san francisco saying intelligent things to young middle class people in the hopes that they will give him disproportionate handouts. I've encountered this more than a few times when I lived in Berkeley. I think its a technique thats somewhat endemic to the bay area homeless population.

The assumption I didn't appreciate, even more than "even MIT_hacker can learn something from the homeless", was that Larry "could easily get a job at a bike shop." The OP should read the recent article in Rolling Stone, The Sharp Sudden Decline of America's Middle Class. But it does sound like there's a demand from the upper-class for urban guide-service through Tenderloin.

Exactly. In reality, guiding stranded bikers through the tenderloin might actually earn the guy more than working at a bike shop

Re: Interface Design with a Homeless person

#107

Post by icebraining »

anigbrowl wrote: post #97
jschuur wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, he could have just heard about the contents without reading them at the time, and later read them when they were publicized.

He wouldn't have been the first person to read them then (middle sentence).

It doesn't say the first person, it says "the first member of the public".
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