Comment by 10-6 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 10-6 | Hacker News Reader

The author explains a few problems with the current state of the Web under the section The Five Lacks:

- "On the closed social web... We lack freedom, innovation, trust, respect, and transparency."

- "Innovation on these platforms is dying."

- "And there’s little transparency. All of the data is locked up or rate limited to a prohibitive degree."

While some of these may or not even be true (innovation dying, really?), I think the author makes a large leap from his premises to the conclusion. So just because the author claims there are issues with the current state of the web, that doesn't mean the solution is to completely ditch "the tech giants in control suppress our freedom" and remove yourself from the current web platform and applications (e.g. fb, google, etc.)

The best way to determine whether this is a viable and useful solution, and whether or not some of the apps are actually something people want and find useful is to see how many people ditch applications from the "tech giants" start using these new apps built for the social web.

A lot of ideas sounds great in theory, but then don't hold up years down the line. Plenty of new applications and social networks have been created over the years with great explanations and a "Our Philosophy" section, but what actually matters is whether or not people change their habits and start using these new applications.

The problems the author listed in The Five Lacks section are completely real problems on a lot of the applications on the Web, but I don't think any of these social web apps listed in the article are the solution.

It's easiest for me to approach these projects because I'm betting those developing such projects are willing to hear my user story and jam on healing-centered design for recovering information addicts such as myself.

My reason for mentioning these things is to help start the conversations around then.

I think any app with infinite scroll, which I think Patchwork might have, isn't respecting how repetitive motions like that lead to addictive behaviors and/or repetitive stress issues.

Also, I'd like to see other design patterns useful for addicting users to be publicly and loudly set aside.

Since these apps are open source, I can at least start the conversation & I can do it with pull requests.

I also think the metric of conversion is misguided for determining if it's successful. I think it's time to start measuring software design based on subjective well-being. Allow users to see metrics related to their well-being, like how much time is spent using the apps and in what ways.

I think people are first going to populate a new app ecosystem with iterations of what's popular outside the ecosystem before doing the serious work of addressing all the ways we software wrong beyond what's kept in mind when designing the ecosystem. Could that be what you're talking about?

It can't work. If you don't design for addicting behaviors none of the 80% of users who aren't addicts will use your service more than once. It's a catch 22. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

This is a limiting belief. I no longer choose to hold such beliefs because they engage cognitive biases away from imagining ways it can happen.

I hypothesize an approach oriented around human needs can be immediately valuable and can grow in value for an individual user, even if they never connect to another user. Even if I haven't yet imagined it.

Choosing my beliefs intentionally is a skill I developed on my own and think a social app that simultaneously taught such a useful skill might be something people choose to learn. I've cultivated a set of skills I use to stay sane in the face of a weird world where accurately judging what's true is getting harder. I bet others could benefit from learning how to not be gaslit by politicians, for example. I think an app teaching such skills would go viral and spread as long as it remained useful.

Lots of people are heavy on beliefs and light on reality these days. I prefer to stay grounded and to study actual real world phenomena instead. It's better to use the best proven tools and methods to enact the change you want to see than to swim upstream with ineffective methods because reality makes you feel uncomfortable.

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