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Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

venturebeat.com

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Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#51

Post by skookumchuck »

yowlingcat wrote: post #46
skookumchuck wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A short list: 1. fonts too small 2. buttons that do different things depending on how long the button is held down 3. chording - needing to hold down more than one button simultaneously to do something 4. blink speed - slow blink means one thing, fast blink means another. Is that LED blinking "slow" or "fast"? 5. labeling buttons with icons that have no deducible meaning 6. modes 7. having to do the next step within…

Reading each one of these made me silently scream inside. I'm not elderly yet (on the outside, I suppose), but each one of these things is poor UX and makes me absolutely livid.

They're incredibly common. I can't get the radio in my car out of certain modes I accidentally get into. It doesn't even have an off button. I essentially have to wait several minutes until it times out.

Many devices I have, once I lose the manual, are simply impossible to use because of the points listed above. My dashcam is simply impossible to use because of this, even though it has a bitmapped display. All it needs is power, menu, up, down, select and with a bitmapped display you can do anything with that. But noooo...

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#52

Post by inferiorhuman »

wwweston wrote: post #48
inferiorhuman wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Yeah, no. No, yeah. > There's a pernicious narrative the United States that christianity has a monopoly on positive, moral behavior /.../ it doesn't take long to find examples of christianity creating atrocious behavior Sure. These are not the commenter's claims, though, so it's odd that they're what you're litigating. "We did a charitable thing as an expression of / motivated by our faith" is orthogonal to whether…

These are not the commenter's claims, though, so it's odd that they're what you're litigating.

It's sure implied by that wording. I think the term that's en vogue these days is microaggression. The exact words "because only christians would do something empathetic on a first date" weren't used, but the implication is there.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#53

Post by phamjamstudio »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #34
phamjamstudio wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife and I did this as our first date when we first started dating; we're both Christian if you're wondering why someone would do this on a first date. Unexpectedly, the lady we were to visit literally lived her last hour before she passed away before our eyes. We listened and comforted her husband for the next hour or so. We also listened to the CNA make the difficult calls to her children, some of which were out…

we're both Christian if you're wondering why someone would do this on a first date What does both of you identifying as christian have to do with anything? Are non-christians less likely to do empathetic things?

As others have pointed out, I mainly mentioned our faith as the reason that drives us to serve the greater community such as the seniors at the hospice care center we visited; I almost didn't but i thought it was worthwhile given it's probably an uncommon first date.

I have and love many family members and friends who aren't Christian who of course have done similarly empathetic things out of the goodness of their heart; I'm sure we can all name such people in our lives - we should share their stories too.

I really appreciate the author and in light of this story, all the health care employees who work tirelessly to support and care for the ailing and downtrodden. This is what "loving your neighbor as you would love yourself" means.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#54

Post by phamjamstudio »

ceceshao1 wrote: post #2

Was a bit surprised to see this piece from VentureBeat (guess that's why they called it OffBeat). My family has been taking care of my grandmother who has Alzheimers and Parkinsons and it's taken a tremendous toll on everyone, especially my father who is the main caretaker. As someone in tech, it's stories and experiences like this that make me wonder if we're working towards something that will help those in need or…

You have a good heart - I hope you keep at it, even if it means just keeping the elderly company or helping with simple tasks; they and the senior center staff will certainly appreciate it.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#55

Post by notyouravgdoge »

I find it interesting that most of my company perks apply only to the employee, their spouse or domestic partner, and their children, but not to their parents or grandparents.

Your "family" could be covered by a great health insurance plan through your employer, but you wouldn't get any financial assistance on the $6,300 a month that the author of the article is paying for his elderly mother.

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#56

Post by greenleafjacob »

ceceshao1 wrote: post #2

Was a bit surprised to see this piece from VentureBeat (guess that's why they called it OffBeat). My family has been taking care of my grandmother who has Alzheimers and Parkinsons and it's taken a tremendous toll on everyone, especially my father who is the main caretaker. As someone in tech, it's stories and experiences like this that make me wonder if we're working towards something that will help those in need or…

Sam Gerstenzang (formerly of a16z) runs Umbrella [1]. You should check it out.

[1] https://www.askumbrella.com/

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#57

Post by ceceshao1 »

onemoresoop wrote: post #8
ceceshao1 wrote: post #2

Was a bit surprised to see this piece from VentureBeat (guess that's why they called it OffBeat). My family has been taking care of my grandmother who has Alzheimers and Parkinsons and it's taken a tremendous toll on everyone, especially my father who is the main caretaker. As someone in tech, it's stories and experiences like this that make me wonder if we're working towards something that will help those in need or…

There are services in NYC where you can volunteer to simply talk to lonely elderly (or play card games or some other activity) in your neighborhood. I can't provide a link right unfortunately. You have to sign up, they'll verify you and then they'll connect to some lonely elderly in your area. Loneliness and isolation is understated.

This sounds perfect - if you can dig up the link, that would be great!

Re: Taking care of the elderly in Silicon Valley – a personal story

#58

Post by max_effort »

ceceshao1 wrote: post #2

Was a bit surprised to see this piece from VentureBeat (guess that's why they called it OffBeat). My family has been taking care of my grandmother who has Alzheimers and Parkinsons and it's taken a tremendous toll on everyone, especially my father who is the main caretaker. As someone in tech, it's stories and experiences like this that make me wonder if we're working towards something that will help those in need or…

I used to volunteer at a senior community center in NYC and I've tried to do it in a few other locations. If you offer to help in a non-specific way, you likely won't hear back. There may also be liability issues they want to avoid, depending on the manner in which you'd be helping. I got replies when I offered to tutor people.
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