@fasterandworse@hci.social
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

fasterandworse

@fasterandworse@hci.social

Design enthusiast. An Australian in Amsterdam

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

fasterandworse, to random
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

Understanding the thoughts and feelings of others because you want them to be satisfied users is not empathy, it's customer acquisition and retention.

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@siderea i'm writing a larger thing but just throwing this out there, perhaps too far out of context. It's definitely the fine distinction. Customer acquisition and retention are fine and good as a purpose but understanding the thoughts and feelings of others is only half the definition of empathy, as I understand. Without the sharing and solidarity you could say that Terminators have empathy because they want to understand the thoughts and feelings of people to better hunt them.

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@siderea this is interesting. I'm glad you're challenging this idea. I don't think I am saying empathy should be used to do things I approve. At least I don't mean to say that.

Sociopaths use empathy to manipulate. But if we only say "sociapaths are empathetic", we're letting the social definition of empathy cloud the interpretation. Like saying "serial killers tend to be polite" vs "serial killers tend to be polite so their intended victim is at ease"

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@siderea so I'm saying that if you compare:

Empathy is an important skill for UX designers and researchers

to

Empathy is an important skill for UX designers and researchers to improve conversion rates and engagement

you might see the point I have been sloppily trying to make.

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@siderea thanks again for the push back. You've definitely made me reconsider my views.

tante, to random
@tante@tldr.nettime.org avatar

If you have a fancy shmancy application submission system you should be able to send out "Job's been given to someone else" note.

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@tante have you had the post-rejection "how did we do?" survey email yet?

obligatory: https://hci.social/@fasterandworse/110502137517593016

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@tante it's very possible. Hope it comes through for you

fasterandworse, to random
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

I'm at a point where I don't have the energy to read anything, complimentary or critical, about AI. It's such a sudden torrent of commentary that I've gone into the flight reaction and can feel myself pretending it doesn't exist.

tante, to random
@tante@tldr.nettime.org avatar

I hate how much I am still wired into feelings of being a failure. Like today's a day where I feel like I need to have a PhD to be worth anything as a "writer" or "person who thinks loudly about stuff".

Which I know is false and I also know wouldn't be good for me mentally but still these things creep up.

These feelings always go, but it just shows how deep feelings of economic/social instability or inadequacy that are mere inheritance and your parental generations' feelings can still stick with you.

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@tante 200%

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@tante if it’s any consolation the quality of your writing led me to assume you had a phd

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@tante I hope the writing and the talking you do keeps you in a good place.

axbom, (edited ) to random
@axbom@axbom.me avatar

A strategy for ethically dubious products is to release something with a set of really poor features, and then improve it significantly within a short period of time.

  1. The company will be applauded, and get good press, for quickly fixing something there was already a fix for at the time of release. (Nobody would have applauded the company for releasing something that worked well enough from the start.)

  2. People will now more readily accept the updated version because it is "fixed". Chances are that the updated version, had it been released from the start, would have been criticised for being inferior. Now, it can be presented as the much improved version.

  3. People will tend to forget about all the other ways the product is inferior, because the company has shown that they are making efforts to improve.

Releasing crap with a quick fix makes people lower their standards.

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@axbom @tante this is really interesting because what does a “fixed” chatgpt look like when they don’t define any concrete purpose for it? Zoom is a great example of iterative design that always delivers the minimum and just keeps adding the minimum but retains this frustrating position of not being particularly good at anything in particular

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@axbom hope I didn’t sound antagonistic. Genuinely interesting to think about.

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@axbom it’s really interesting to think about how the initial bare minimum becomes embedded in use. Social stuff like Zoom becomes embedded thanks to Covid and you get this synchronisation effect where you have to use it because the other party uses it. Then you start thinking about what an embedded mvp does to the motivation to fix or complete the product. If it’s embedded, it means it works, right? (In the minds of the business behind it)

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@axbom so you just keep responding to anything that threatens the embedding. That’s kind of what Zoom is. Then there is the chatgpt embedding which is kind of fomo related. But still the same effect in the sense of finishing the product vs maintaining the embeddening of it. Anyway, this bonkers tweet from the weekend encapsulated it well for me

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@axbom same for projects and job hunting my computer is littered with Slack, Zoom, Teams, and Figma. All which I don’t need for myself.

tante, to random
@tante@tldr.nettime.org avatar

Saw a few defenses of Andreessen's fascist creed as "has basically just trolling, if you are offended that's on you and your moral failure" and sure, if nothing matters to you and everything powerful people say is "just words" that's convenient but really shows your position and cynicism.

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@tante at least it’s inaccessible

tante, to random
@tante@tldr.nettime.org avatar

But I do see why people find (Twitch) streaming fun to do. It is a very specific kind of social space between a "lecture" and a chat room of equal peers. Has its relevant niches.

Like one could offer "office hours" to just talk about certain topics, gathering questions and having more of a conversation while allowing passive-ish participation.

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@tante I streamed my research and writing work for about 6 months. I rarely had chatters but I always read aloud and wrote by talking through it as if I had an audience. I absolutely loved it and had a few regular viewers that were great to talk to. Have been too busy with life lately but have an open week coming up where I plan to do some night time reading/writing streams and honestly can’t wait.

tante, to random
@tante@tldr.nettime.org avatar

@Jonathanglick his latest one https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@tante @Jonathanglick never seen such an unnecessary use of a table of contents

tante, to random
@tante@tldr.nettime.org avatar

NGOs in the human rights space using "AI" to generate illustrations for their (funded!) projects are kinda like scabs.

The creative world is fighting for their economic survival and you're just like "Hey this is super cheap!".

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@tante I wrote this line in an article, something like “in government orgs, ngos, and non-profits, the empathy of UX is usually real” and I had a few comments and messages about how that isn’t so true

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@tante yeah, I figured it would be a matter of being very careful with whatever funds you have. It was a response that I wasn’t expecting so I tucked it away as something to look into further at some point.

tante, to random
@tante@tldr.nettime.org avatar

At a party and every conversation is on "AI" and I am really over it.

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@tante feels like such a gut punch after the past 3 years

j9t, to Vivaldi
@j9t@mas.to avatar

Looks like someone at believes in conformance, too.

The Resistance is still alive!

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@j9t ✊

timnitGebru, to random
@timnitGebru@dair-community.social avatar

So the "AI Safety" people at the chatbot company will not be the ones who think about, I don't know, the ELIZA chatbot from 60 years ago and the issues that arose let alone with this one?

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@timnitGebru if it’s a commercial job title that suggests concern for the well being of users, it’s a marketing role in disguise.

tante, to random
@tante@tldr.nettime.org avatar

The Age of the Grift Shift

I wondered a bit why we're jumping from one grift to the next. Here are a few thoughts ...

https://tante.cc/2023/09/21/the-age-of-the-grift-shift/

fasterandworse,
@fasterandworse@hci.social avatar

@tante I really like what you wrote. I’m thinking a lot about what you said regarding “content” and how this is a descendant of SEO and how that had a similar effect on what it meant for someone to be interested in whatever you published.

My favourite example of this is whenever a product has one of those “how did you hear about us?” forms, they will busy “word of mouth” at the bottom, as if it’s the last thing they’d expect.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • tester
  • DreamBathrooms
  • thenastyranch
  • magazineikmin
  • osvaldo12
  • ethstaker
  • Youngstown
  • mdbf
  • slotface
  • rosin
  • ngwrru68w68
  • kavyap
  • GTA5RPClips
  • JUstTest
  • cisconetworking
  • InstantRegret
  • khanakhh
  • cubers
  • everett
  • Durango
  • tacticalgear
  • Leos
  • modclub
  • normalnudes
  • provamag3
  • anitta
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •