User experience research (UXR) is a function that works with users and analyzing data to learn about and test ideas. This serves as a way to avoid common biases when building products and making decisions (e.g. confirmation bias, availability bias, etc) by talking to real people outside of an organization. See also:
When given the option to start with something pre-built, developer minded users are skeptical they won’t have enough control over the implementation and run into a critical limitation or burden. This leads to the impulse to build using the lowest level control they can (e.g. API integration). However, it’s often the case that they under estimate the cost of building and maintaining their customized solution. Examples:
Users that think about your product in terms of how it will be used and what they need it to do. They imagine implementing the product and the downstream effects (like ongoing maintenance). Experience colors the developer-minded user—bad experiences in the past brings in additional decision criteria and expectations. See also:
Users that frame decisions by understanding cost, benefits, and want to buy solutions. They often use ROI as a mental model for whether or not to use a product or choose between providers. When choosing a technical solution they value speed of delivery and ongoing costs. They are more likely to choose ‘plug and play’ options they don’t have to imagine. See also:
An easy way to explain a Zettelkasten system of taking notes would be to explain it as a mind map (connections between discrete concepts) combined with atomic notes (each note has a single topic). Rather than a node being a word or phrase as in a mind map, each node is a note. See also:
A tools for networked thought that allows the user to offload a process into something external to themselves. This augments one’s ability to do certain kinds of tasks. For example, a zettelkasten offloads the collection off ideas and their connections into ‘off-brain’ storage that can be queried later thereby removing the need to memorize and retain accumulated knowledge.
A photography exhibit by Eric Pickersgill which shows people in their every day life looking at their phones, but with the phone removed from the image. The effect is an eerie feeling in seeing subjects stare blankly into their hands in what should amount to social situations.
White people respond with outrage over any allegation, perceived or actual, of racism because they see racist as synononymous with bad people who hurt others. This narrow view contributes to being closed off to the idea of systemic racism because it allows white people to say it’s not them it’s bad people. White people don’t view race as an important characteristic of themselves and dismissive of the experience of people of color. Individualism and objectivity contribute to this and make it difficult to acknowledge societal and systemic issues and tend to blame the individual for failures. Individuality prevents reflection on group membership (e.g. rich/poor, young/old) and unearned advantages. Group membership conflicts with objectivity–we would need to acknowledge we don’t see the world objectively, but through a group’s cultural lens.Not understanding socialization
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In mindfulness, the practice of meditation aims to deconstruct the ego by observing thoughts and trying to notice where they originate. In so doing, the concept of self disappears as just another thought appearing in consciousness because everything arises in consciousness.
People tend to conflate the ability to write code and intelligence. Like any field however, there are smart programmers and there are dumb programmers. The ability to write code is orthogonal to intelligence. In that way, coding is more like literacy. See also:
Mercury is a better option for colonization than Mars because of the abundance of solar and thermal energy and availability of water. Mars has less available water and would require more reliance on nuclear energy because there is significantly less solar energy and heat. This would eventually require mining although Mars is believed to have less uranium than Earth. If energy is costly and natural resources are scarce, prospects of building a sustainable colony for a large group would be very challenging.
Most messages sent on Slack do not happen in public or private channels, but in DMs. This indicates a preference for 1:1 comminication given the option. See also:
A way of expressing similar, but different objects. For example in object oriented programming you might have a Vehicle class that specifies a method to move and any method that operates on a Vehicle can call the move method. However, move might be implemented differently for classes that inherit Vehicle e.g. an Airplane or a Submarine.
A staggering amount of energy is used to power Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two largest blockchains. The energy required for a single transaction on Bitcoin is the equivalent of powering a two person household for three months. See also:
An interstellar object that passed through our solar system in 2018. Researchers believe it to be solid chunk of hydrogen that was formed in a gas cloud 40MM years ago. However, if does not have the usual features of a comet (e.g. a coma) and it’s accelerating. An alternative explanation is that it’s extraterrestrial in origin. Read Mystery of Interstellar Visitor ‘Oumuamua Gets Trickier in Scientific American that discusses reasons why the hydrogen comet theory is in question. See also:
Uber drivers in Kenya call it ‘riding Karura’ when you use the app to match with a driver, cancel the ride, then paying the driver a pre-negotiated amount in cash. The term comes from the nearby Karura forest which is a popular taxi pickup point. It also loosely means ‘law of the jungle’ where you do what you need to do to provide for yourself and family. This is a form of disintermediation that cuts Uber out of the value chain so the driver can earn more take home pay per ride. See also:
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Describes different systems that require reliance on others by plotting across two axes—how many people need to behave correctly out of how many for the system to work. Examples: See also:
How we think about thoughts is composed of metacognitive knowledge - our understanding of our thinking and learning, metacognitive regulation - strategies and practices that control our learning, and metacognitive experiences - thoughts and feelings while learning something. See also:
New-practitioners adopting the practice of meditation and mindfulness has a tendency to coincide with a change of identity. Outward signs like wearing buddhist bracelets or behaving differently or even discussing the positive experiences they have had with others is an attempt to raise one’s status (i.e. I’m superior to you because I’ve found spirituality). It’s counter to the practice because it contributes to reinforcing the self and can be harmful to making progress. This was the impetus from removing ‘streaks’ from the Waking Up app (see signaling as a service).
When a person acts on behalf of others they may act in their self-interest. This may be counter to the best interest of those they act on behalf of (principals) because of diverging interests and asymmetric information (agent knows something the principals don’t). Examples include politicians, CEO’s, brokers, even doctors, etc.
Love and kindness meditation where you concentrate on visualizing someone you know being purely happy and reciting phrases to with them well. This practice uses the concentration on others to practice mindfulness (similar to focusing on the breath).
Seeing patterns or interpreting meaning in randomness that is not truly there. For example, seeing faces in rock formations on the moon or imagining a pattern in static noise.