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We should be adapting computers to work for humans, not adapting humans to work for computers. I agree that there are tons of improvements to be made to effect
by enginous 14y ago
We should be adapting computers to work for humans, not adapting humans to work for computers.
I agree that there are tons of improvements to be made to effective e-mail use in organizations. But many of the behaviors we exhibit are completely natural to us and difficult to change. For example, we check our e-mail on what psychologists refer to as a variable interval reinforcement schedule; we know that at approximately some interval we get an e-mail that is helpful or enjoyable to us, and we waste our time checking for that e-mail.
It's hard to change the e-mail we receive on a global scale in one instant. It's quite a lot easier to develop tools that change how the e-mail we receive is displayed to us. One such concept was the Gmail priority inbox: what if you only got notifications for the e-mail that was important and could buffer up the rest for later?
A complete theory of how e-mail could work might easily involve a hybrid approach. Why aren't people suggesting solutions that could work instead of debating approaches? Does it have to be one way or the other?
- ljoshua 14y agoGreat comment enginous. I want to look into variable interval reinforcement now, as I've been approaching this from more of a research-based angle. The solutions should be hybrid, though I still believe that better behavior, reinforced by technology, is what will be the most effective. If you have your client reinforcing good checking schedules, that's a behavioral/technical win/win.
- enginous 14y agoThat's a great point: technology can be very effective at shaping human behavior. You might want to check out the Stanford Persuasive Tech Lab's project on behavior design[0], which has some resources about how to use technology to change human behavior. [0] http://captology.stanford.edu/projects/behaviordesign.html http://captology.stanford.edu/projects/behaviordesign.html