Joel Spolsky has a post up about how the design of software affects society, which has some great points about how ignoring Twitter and Facebook and other feeds of information that are constantly coming at him makes us happier. He’s not alone in thinking that the design of software intimately affects the people that use it. Here’s a great post from 2003 on social software by Clay Shirky.

Joel says:

I gave up on the feeds because they were making me angry. A lot of times I was angry because of politics, but even on non-political things, the feeds seemed like they were full of conflict and stress.

I can’t tell you how much happier I am without them. Am I the only one that hated reading feeds? Do they make everybody unhappy? And if they make people unhappy why are they so popular?

And then goes on to examine how these companies have leveraged human behavior and technology to keep us coming back.

I have had issues with this myself (I’m no snowflake).  For Facebook, it’s “I wonder what happened to <old acquaintance>?”.  For Twitter it’s “what are people talking about now?”.  What has worked for me?

First, take the applications off my phone.  The phone is ever present, and if I have access, I will look at the feed.  “Oh, I wonder who has posted something interesting to Twitter.”  Yes, I should limit my access to my phone too.

Then, I changed my password to something hard to remember, that I have to look up someplace (from a password manager).  This means that I can’t login on a whim, but have to take the extra step of looking up my password.

I use the applications for limited purposes, not for general entertainment.  For Twitter, I limit idle scrolling and really focus on the ability to communicate with anyone anywhere, as well as friends I have on Twitter.  Rather than logging in to post something, I’ve set up several zaps to push content from other sites to Twitter.  I also have stagnated at about 500 followers, so if you are looking to be a Twitter influencer, don’t ask me for advice.  For Facebook I’m even more careful.  I stay logged out of Facebook, and only login when I have specific tasks–share an article or contact someone for whom I have no email address.

I never allow the applications to send me notifications.  The emails they send to pull me back in are bad enough.

These platforms have tremendous value, but if I am not careful I get sucked in and waste time and brainpower.  There’s a great book, Feed, and a primary plot driver is how humans will act when we have access to the wonders of the Internet embedded in our brains.

It’s a dystopian novel.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend last night who was doing some home remodeling.  He mentioned that part of the hassle of any such project was that the general contractor (GC) with whom you are directly in contact, doesn’t really know the state of construction site (what has been done, who has stopped by to work, what it looks like, etc).

They are limited to three sources of information:

• their subcontractors
• the homeowner
• a site visit

The first source may or may not be reliable, depending on the relationship and how busy they are.  Using the second leads to every homeowner’s nightmare (micromanaging the home improvement project), and also may have some reliability issues.  The third may not be feasible, depending on the size of the project and the number of projects the GC is running.

However, there is now a fourth option that my friend mentioned.  (I thought of drones, silly me.)  My friend had anecdotal evidence that using these outdoor cameras was very helpful to some general contractors.  They can review footage in much less time than driving to the site.  They can send video around.  They can text their subs and resolve any issues that may arise, or reschedule work if needed.

Using a camera system, like the nest outdoor camera, gives the GC an independent, truthful view into the construction site.

We are subscribers to the local paper (the Daily Camera).  It’s not perfect (and there are of course online subscription options), but the experience of reading newspaper is different than the experience of reading online.  They both have strengths.

Online:

• read from anywhere: anywhere that has an internet connection, of course
• searchability: you can search for a particular word within an article or a specific article within an edition
• shareability: super simple to pass on an article that you think a friend would enjoy via email, text, etc

Offline/paper:

• discoverability: often you’ll discover stories that you didn’t know you needed to read
• focus: when you’re reading the paper, you aren’t distracted by any notifications or other applications
• browseability: you can easily switch between sections and discover related articles
• shareability: when you read an article you like, you can point it out to a family member and they can immediately read it if they like

There’s also a comforting ritual about it–wandering out to the driveway every morning and enjoying the early morning across the seasons, younger family members seeking out the funnies, folding the newspaper and reading it on the couch.

Supporting local news organizations is much like supporting local shops or local farms. In all of these cases, you’re trading efficiency for resiliency (the centralized solution is in general more efficient, but concentration means more chokepoints).  If you don’t support local options, eventually they won’t be available. If that’s OK with you, that’s fine, but it’s not OK with me.

If you haven’t read The Deployment Age (and its follow on post), you should go read it right now.

The premise is that we’re entering a technology super cycle with the Internet and PC where the technology will become far more integrated and invisible and the chief means of financing will be internal company resources.  The focus will be on existing markets, not creating new ones, and refinement rather than innovation.

If you work in technology and are interested in the big picture, it is worth a read:

Some things we’ve learned over the past 30 years–that novelty is more important than quality; that if you’re not disrupting yourself someone else will disrupt you; that entering new markets is more important than expanding existing markets; that technology has to be evangelized, not asked for by your customers–may no longer be true. Almost every company will continue to be managed as if these things were true, probably right up until they manage themselves out of business. There’s an old saying that generals are always fighting the last war, it’s not just generals, it’s everyone’s natural inclination.

Go read it: The Deployment Age.

Where can you talk about super-capacitors vs batteries, whether you should rewrite your app (hint, you shouldn’t), penetration testing of well known organizations, cost of living, and native vs cross platform mobile apps?  All while enjoying a cold drink and the best fried food the Dark Horse can offer?

At the Boulder Hacker News Meetup, that’s where.  We had our inaugural meetup today and had a good showing.  Developers, startup owners, FTEs, contractors, backend folks, front end devs and penetration testers all showed up, and, as the Meetup page suggests, ate, drank and chatted.

Hope to see you at the next one.