31–40 of 61 posts
Why is the iPad so addictive that children have to be kept away from it? Because every single person designing apps and websites is incentivised to try and win 100% of your attention. Reed Hoffmann put it nicely — "We're competing with sleep, on the margin." The default apps, browser excluded, are pretty harmless - their incentive is to create a device you decide to welcome into your home. I don't see children spendi…
This is something the Daoists have talked about for 3000 years. The "easier and faster" is only facilitated by an unseen debt. You cannot have "easier" without a "harder". The harder will always follow, as sure as the night follows the day. The simplicity of technology is a facade. So yes, I agree; "You don’t win by keeping up. You win by stepping out." I am happy to see the Dao making itself visible again.
A lot of old wisdom seems to be coming back. It's as funny as it's sad that we have to wait for "scientists" to confirm to us that fasting, extreme hot/cold, are evidently good to us. Also I've recently seen an ad for a company that builds houses out of carbon-negative materials (wood!).
What good would fasting or these extreme temps do and how would we prove it if not for evidence.
Scientists are NOT the problem here.
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>The challenge is the system of incentives around the technology The solution is simple: Outlaw advertising. It should have been done decades ago, considering the negative externalities it puts on society (in terms of visual pollution, and harmful incentives it creates). There is no real reason for it existing. The original argument was that it provides customers with information based on which to make purchasing dec…
I'm deeply jealous of the few US states that have banned billboard advertising -- it really feels like pervasive advertising is outright caustic to my brain.
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How do you explain the saying 'sharing is caring'? If you're correct and people inherently enjoy the exploitation of others, how could such a saying spontaneously develop and resonate with rather large groups? And how did the feasts of large religions develop? Things like iftar, where you communally share lots of food with both people you know and strangers, including the impoverished and disadvantaged? There ought t…
Because that saying originated as a US bourgeois thing, people willing to liberate themselves from really caring for the other (much poorer) people living just besides them in exchange for writing some code. Just look at the streets of San Francisco, for example, not much sharing there. And before someone mentioning that people like Torvalds and such other open-source luminaries are not technically Americans, they’re…
That you evoke Uncle Ted shows that this is a half-measure at best.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The challenge is the system of incentives around the technology The solution is simple: Outlaw advertising. It should have been done decades ago, considering the negative externalities it puts on society (in terms of visual pollution, and harmful incentives it creates). There is no real reason for it existing. The original argument was that it provides customers with information based on which to make purchasing dec…
> There is no real reason for it existing Except the fundamental human right to be able to say what you want, when you want, how you want, even (especially?) for commercial purposes.
Meh, someone wrote them, we can change them, they're not universal, even in the US true free speech doesn't exist. libel ? slander ? incitement ? defamation ? &c. you can't even swear on tv...
And even if... what does it mean ? Should I invent a 400dB personal loudspeaker for people to express themselves 24/7 because they have "the right to say whatever they want however they want, whenever they want" ?
That's a schoolyard level take on what freedom of expression is...
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Absolutely, 100%. Not all tech is the same. A chair is a form of technology, but it doesn't try to make you sit all the time. Although some technologies (like books) are replaced with e-readers through which we handle over a certain degree of freedom to whomever the platform we use belongs to.
a chair is a form of technology?
1. The application of science, especially to industrial or commercial objectives.
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Don't look at what people say, look at what they do. People like feeling virtuous, but rarely act that way unless they stand to gain from it.
My experience is that if people are in an environment where helping others is socially encouraged rather than punished, most people want to help even strangers providing no benefit to themselves other than the healthy little dopamine hit. There's exceptions of course, but not enough to actually cause a problem. Unfortunately I find there's a lot of social pressure (at least in the US) telling people that if they help…
What they stand to gain in that situation is good standing in their peer group which is a personal gain. It's basically personal public relations management.
How often do people truly do something good without standing anything to gain? That is the true measure of innate human tendency to doing good. I'm sure there is some of that, but very little.
Why is the iPad so addictive that children have to be kept away from it? Because every single person designing apps and websites is incentivised to try and win 100% of your attention. Reed Hoffmann put it nicely — "We're competing with sleep, on the margin." The default apps, browser excluded, are pretty harmless - their incentive is to create a device you decide to welcome into your home. I don't see children spendi…
The original content model was sustainable for centuries.
Customer pays per viewing, and experiences entertainment for an hour or so.
Then another model emerged after the printing press and record player.
Customer pays once and experiences the same thing as many times as they want.
Now we have a model where a customer pays constantly for no specific entertainment in particular and has no control over when they lose access to some entertainment.
Maybe we just go back to people paying for just what they want…
The issue is the addiction to growth and VC money tech has. We can’t have simple transactions in tech. It needs to be recurring or predatory.
I disagree with his take on traffic jams though. Public transportation, bikes, and well designed cities really do solve traffic
True enough, but those are technological solutions to a social problem. E.g., if the public transportation is terrible because it's dangerous or you get hassled on it, people don't use it. The guy sitting in a 4 hour commute every day is doing it for a reason. It's a cost he's willing to pay for some benefit.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The challenge is the system of incentives around the technology The solution is simple: Outlaw advertising. It should have been done decades ago, considering the negative externalities it puts on society (in terms of visual pollution, and harmful incentives it creates). There is no real reason for it existing. The original argument was that it provides customers with information based on which to make purchasing dec…
> There is no real reason for it existing Except the fundamental human right to be able to say what you want, when you want, how you want, even (especially?) for commercial purposes.
I don't mind freely given personal recommendations for products, paid recommendations are suspect.