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On the subject of placebo technology. How well do HN think placebo software would work? An example would be a productivity app that only has a flip switch for
by Eyght 6y ago
On the subject of placebo technology. How well do HN think placebo software would work?
An example would be a productivity app that only has a flip switch for High or Low productivity. Whenever you need to be extra productive, just open the app and set it to High.
- SiempreViernes 6y agoWould it add a slight matrix-style effect of symbols streaming down the screen? Or at least set the cpu fan to high?
- heavenlyblue 6y agoMake the display brightness higher. Or rather sharpness, maybe?
- stinos 6y agoThis has actually been researched and the science is pretty clear on this one: the placebo effect is very real and does work. As a matter of fact IIRC (sorry, can't find the paper) some experiments with the principle as you describe have been done and came to that same conclusion.
- dmix 6y ago> How well do HN think placebo software would work? Would work at what? Make people 'happy'?
- Eyght 6y agoThe software would have to make a claim. For example, improve your posture.
- comboy 6y agoIt wouldn't be just placebo though. Clearly separating time when you want to be productive vs playing around is an old and effective trick. Placebo apps that make your Internet faster are as old as the Internet itself though. I am guilty. In my defense, that was 20 years ago.
- mekkkkkk 6y agoGuilty as in you developed one of those apps? I'd be really curious to hear about the product timeline in that case. Did it get any traction? Was it monetized somehow? I've always been curious.
- mercer 6y agoI'm not 100% certain of how the medical/psychological community would define 'placebo', but I'd argue it's not as simple as this not being a placebo because it's an effective trick. The fact that placebos are effective is precisely /because/ they're effectively tricking whatever badly-understood connection there is between our thinking and our body. I imagine that there are degrees to this: 'tricking' ourselves to be productive by deciding to clean our house instead would generally not be called a placebo, whereas taking a sugar pill that lifts us out of depression probably would. But fundamentally they're just the same thing on a spectrum: an improvement as a result of something that we /know/ should not be effective by understood, biological pathways.
- LeoPanthera 6y agoMagic / More Magic http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/magic-story.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/magic-story.html
- Extigy 6y agoIt’s less common now, but I do remember helping multiple people in the past who had installed malware masquerading as “PC Optimiser” software. Usually these would contain big green buttons labelled something like “Optimise system RAM” and show lists of many problems it was helpfully fixing for you. Some users were utterly convinced that their machine was running faster than ever before, when in reality the malware did nothing other than begging for cash payments. Often the opposite by slowing down the machine with continuous pop-up advertisements and other nasties.
- caterama 6y agoVery well. The Pomodoro technique is essentially this.
- mekkkkkk 6y agoPomodoro is a way to gamify and time box your working hours into effective chunks. I wouldn't call that "placebo".
- pjc50 6y agoThere used to be an entire industry of "performance boosting" products, only some of which actually did anything. Placebos are certainly an effective way to get people to give you money.