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more on Time to switch off and slow down (fwd)
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 09:50:27 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Frode Hegland <frode () hegland com> Date: July 15, 2005 1:30:37 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] Time to switch off and slow down (fwd)PLUG: May I humbly suggest that some of this is in part a failure of the imagination, as is often the case? Why stick with email programs and utilities which are essentially unchanged since the 70s?
How about this, email which does not just 'beep' with every message, so you constantly have to keep checking who is sending you email?
What about a small app which speaks when you get mail, with a real human voice, stating who the message is from? "You have a message from a client" or "You have a reply from your assistant" and keeps quiet with non-useful messages so you will never hear anything like "You have another chain-message-joke from your brother".
http://www.speakingassistant.comAlso works on phones BTW and no, I am not trying to sell this to your guys, just show that other approaches can provide a better information environment. I am happy to provide free serial numbers to all IP'ers. And the phone version is not publicly available yet, but happy to email it to one and all.
On 15 Jul 2005, at 18:13, David Farber wrote:
Begin forwarded message: From: Michael Winser <michaelw () winser com> Date: July 15, 2005 12:53:01 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] Time to switch off and slow down (fwd)I'm confused. If IP was broadcast directly to my eyeballs (Fred Pohl, how right you were) then I can see a problem. If I lived in Times square and was forced to watch TV on a jumbotron then I can see a problem.I don't see a problem.It's sad that we've reached the point where, in spite of unprecedented control of the information flow we consume (I launch my web browser, rss reader and email client, not the other way around), we look to the information publisher to provide us with the discipline we lack.In other words, Duuude, turn off your Dell! Michael David J. Farber wrote:Just gave a two day email free :-)===== Forwarded message from Sashikumar N <sashikumar.n () gmail com> =====\From: Sashikumar N <sashikumar.n () gmail com> Reply-To: Sashikumar N <sashikumar.n () gmail com> To: dave () farber net Subject: Time to switch off and slow down Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 18:44:00 +0530 Prof Dave, For IP, if you like to forward it. What IP'ers think of slowing down, can we have a email free day at IP? Not that IP sends that many emails, but just an thought :). I wish slashdot has a post free day, the guys there churn 24x7 non stop infos. regards sashi http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4682123.stm Time to switch off and slow down By Kevin Anderson BBC News website At a hi-tech conference bristling with bloggers constantly checkingmessages on Blackberries, smartphones, laptops and handheld computers,it is odd to hear a speaker suggest an e-mail free day. But journalist Carl Honoré told attendees of the TED conference in Oxford they should unplug and slow down in a world that was stuck in fast- forward. And for a wired world accustomed to having nearly unlimited information and the boundless choices of online shopping, it seems almost heretical to suggest that the infinite possibilities of the modern world leave us less satisfied instead of more. But author Barry Schwartz told the conference that it was better when we had only a few choices of salad dressing instead of the 175 at his local supermarket. These were just some of the suggestions to the audience at TED in their search for the good life. TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) brings together experts in design, technology, and entertainment to share their ideas about our futures. 'Roadrunner culture' We live in a world where instant gratification is not fast enough, in a world of not only speed dating, but even of speed yoga, said Mr Honoré. The author of In Praise of Slowness decided to decelerate after he found himself speed reading bedtime stories to his son. He even found himself excited when he read in the newspaper a story about one-minute bedtime stories. But he caught himself: "Has it really come to this that I'm ready to fob off my son with a sound bite at the end of the day?" People point to urbanisation, consumerism and globalisation as the cause of this "roadrunner culture", he said, but it is more fundamental. "In our society, time is a scarce resource," he said. "We turneverything in race with the finish line but we never reach that finishline." But around the world, there is a backlash against this culture, such as the slow food and slow city movement in Italy. Across the world, people are slowing down, and they are finding that they "eat better, make love better, exercise better, work better". And Mr Honoré told a crowd flush with technology that they needed to rediscover the off button. Technology was supposed to make us more efficient, he explained. Butour lives are often so driven by interruptions that a recent report on"info-mania" found that the flood of e-mails was such a distraction that it cut workers IQ by 10 points. One department at software firm Veritas has declared Friday e-mail free, and it found that the day has become its most productive. More choice is less satisfying Continuing the theme that less is more, author and scholar BarrySchwartz challenged the orthodoxy that to maximise freedom and welfarewe should maximise choice. Confectionery in supermarket, BBC Too much choice can be bewilderingIt is such a deeply embedded assumption that no one questions it, said Mr Schwartz, who explored the idea in his book, The Paradox of Choice.He pointed to his local supermarket where he has a choice of 175 salad dressings. 40 toothpastes, 75 ice teas, 230 soups and 285 varieties ofcookies.Choice is good, he said, but in modern, affluent societies most peopleare confronted with a bewildering array of choices that leads to paralysis. He said that his students sometimes become stuck in low-wage jobs because they fear making the wrong choice of career. Some professors at liberal arts colleges now joke that they "takestudents who would have been stuck working at McDonalds and makes thempeople who are stuck working at Starbucks".With so many options confronting us about almost every decision, thereis a greater chance that we will regret the decision we do make. The myriad choices raise our expectations and create the anticipation of perfection. Regret after making the wrong decision or what is perceived as the wrong decision leads to self-blame, depression and, in extreme cases, suicide, he said. We are bad at realising the downside of choice. "Some choice is better than none, but more choices don't make things better," he argued. ===== End forwarded message ===== ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as michaelw () winser com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ipArchives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/ interesting-people/------------------------------------- You are subscribed as frode () hegland com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ipArchives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting- people/
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