Issue - 2021, week 25
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2021, week 25
Good afternoon!
Today’s issue is about Overlooking.
Overlooking the impact we, humans, have on this planet and how important it is to understand that we are not dominant but that we just have a bigger power of nuisance and destruction.
And overlooking the default version of the tools we build for our audience and the negative impact this negligence can have on the true end users.
Statement of the week (6\10)
Everything seems too big at first glance until we find the first minimal practical steps we can do to get started.
Highlights
Homo sapiens is a self-aggrandizing and dangerous species that has assumed domination over a planet it is only just beginning to understand.
1. Human wise(ass)
Sometimes I feel like we have become quite arrogant and self-centered in the way we live on this planet over the last few centuries. We self-proclaimed "Homo sapiens" which means "Man Wise" whereas we are just as much intelligent as the current point of reference we can compare ourselves to. As James Cartwright puts it in his article "How to Think Beyond Ourselves", the storytelling around our species gives us the impression that we are dominant when, in reality, there are so much things we know we can’t explain and, by consequence, probably even more things we don’t know that we don’t know. Over the past centuries, we were able to make significant discoveries and achievements but as James reminds us, we are just starting to scratch the surface. We must not forget that, millions of years ago, other species had already built things that we have achieved ourselves only very recently. For instance networks of mycorrhizal fungi shared information millions years before we created the internet and bacterial bioluminescence brought light to the oceans long before Thomas Edison’s work made it available to our homes. And still, some species can do things human can’t even do and explain today. "There exists a humbling amount of complexity, progress and innovation happening every second outside the confines of our species, and many millions of achievements that rival and surpass our own." says James. Despite that, we bluntly impose our understanding of the world on them. Our confidence have permitted many successes but also left many damages. "Many of the qualities that define our species and have permitted its success throughout the millennia are now causing its undoing." James writes. The truth is, we take a lot but we rarely give back compared to the many species we share this planet with. We, humans, are not dominant, we simply have a bigger power of nuisance and destruction. We should not forget that many of the species that surround us participate in maintaining a habitable environment for us to live in. The humbling and eye-opening article from James Cartwright article is a good reminder. See online
Over half the people are gonna choose the default. So, by default do the right thing and you immediately have improved whatever ecosystem/community you’re part of.
2. Default impact
Everyday, we all use a large number of tools to input and output content the way we need it, and all of those tools have a default way of working. The purpose of a default configuration is to be able to use the tool straight away for what it is made. And it works! But the trade off is often a bit less obvious. In fact, the end result is not always fully optimized for what you just need because it includes a lot more things you didn’t even know or expected. Of course, it’s easy for the creator of the tool to overlook the default and make it the most impressive it can be. But he must be aware that 50% of the people are going to use it by default without asking questions, even if it’s not fully optimized for their use case. Unfortunately, what we usually end up with is a less good experience for the end user. As Jason Lengstorf summarized it well, "By making the default to do just the right things, you immediately improve whatever ecosystem/community you’re part of." See online
Enjoy this issue and see you next week. Take care!