The internet makes us think global.
Social media makes us think about status.
The job makes us think in bottom lines.
All these systems floating around to optimize one thing or another.
We don’t think enough about why optimization is the goal for more GDP, more clicks, more money.
Optimizing isn’t where we need to land. It isn’t the destination. And it probably isn’t part of the journey either. At least not as important as we make it out to be.
In the age of AI, it can feel like humans are becoming obsolete. I don’t see it that way. People are miserable with the work that code and LLMs can now handle for us so that we can be free to exercise good judgment, craft a better story, show we have good taste, connect people, change the emotion in the room, be creative, and so on.
What I think this tech does is allow us to have an honest conversation about what work we do matters and what is just bullshit. Unfortunately, for many of us, it’s more than we like to admit.
But not everyone is productive.
The way we use our time is a signal of what we value.
The universe doesn’t conspire against us. It doesn’t try to make us lonely or feel pain. That’s the human condition. We all experience it. The unequal distribution of it can make it feel so much worse. If only we had that one thing…Keeping account of what we are missing in our lives only highlights it and closes our eyes to what we do have.
Is the phenomenon where we hear ideas that contradict our worldview, reject the data and evidence, only to return to what is familiar.
Change is scary. And when the world feels under existential threat, the easy answer is to resist. To hunker down. And wait for a return of what is familiar.
It’s difficult to grow up thinking the world is one way and then find out it’s another. It’s also difficult to see the end of the road. But no matter how much we try to fight gravity, we just can’t.
When we anchor ourselves to our lens in how we see the world, to find clarity, watch it stand still, we can’t be shocked when it moves again. Life is a moving target. Which means if it is insufficient, it can get better too.
Coming up with a solution isn’t the hard part anymore.
Little Cottonwood skiing suffers on powder days, let’s create public transportation that works.
The Great Salt Lake is collapsing, let’s examine how alfalfa farms are using too much water.
Time to draw new district lines, have it done by committee.
We have the solutions. We have the technology. And yet these problems persist. Why?
Coordination is the problem. Incentive structures. Allowing bad behavior. Not evolving with the times.
The blueprints are easy. The step-by-step instructions can be completed in a day. What we find, though, is that what the masses want isn’t what someone with some pull wants to.
The climbing gym I use recently hiked its rates. The problem isn’t the rate itself, but how the rates were justified. Now, a feature that has existed for 2 decades, allowing you to use any gym in their network, has gone away. To retain that privilege, you must now pay an extra $10 per month.
The issue isn’t the money (it’s already expensive). The issue is how your best customers are being treated, not to mention the litany of problems this creates. What if one partner only goes to one gym closer to their home? What if the location you choose doesn’t offer yoga on Wednesdays? What do you do when you’ve climbed all the routes in your grade?
The easiest thing to do is to raise prices. The hard work would be to create and understand the user experience that makes you special. (I’ll also add that the email announcement was clearly not written by a human.) The bottom line: A few will leave, some will upgrade, but everyone is unhappy about the situation. And they are not the only player in town. It’s just so tempting to raise prices and call it a strategy. But when you are not making real decisions and rely on the default/textbook answers, that isn’t real design or leadership.
Good design doesn’t distract us. It creates or changes the emotion in the room. It’s describing a feeling without words.
DammyJay93 breaks it down for us. The results show that a human is still behind the code.
It’s easy to turn the machine on and vibe a product. Garbage in, garbage out. The real work is spending time with the code. Learn it. Test it. Ultimately, it’s about deciding what kind of experience you’re creating for someone.
If you’re not making decisions, you’re not designing.
Yesterday. And it isn’t getting any better.
It hasn’t worked in a long time. And it’s difficult because there is a cost to quit—psychological costs, the feeling of being left out, missing some events, and so on.
But when only 7% of the content you signed up for appears on your feed, it’s time to go.
You will also gain something too. You just don’t know how much you needed peace in your life.
Perhaps, you’re still on the hook. The better question is: When does social media become untenable for you?
Framing problems in a way that invites people to the table is a difficult skill to master. It’s easy to frame problems on two ends of the spectrum. Cresting a divide that won’t ever be crossed. Resolution, however, is best achieved once we quit framing it in two directions but instead look closer to home.
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