If you went to work every day and were verbally and physically intimidated by your team, full of larger people making racist and sexist comments against you. Then when you tried to get help, your company essentially blamed you, trapping you in that situation with that "team". I'd imagine you'd feel a different kind of "stress" than what you're talking about.
Readit NewsKurimo commented on Harassment at Apple: A personal perspective medium.com/@smsowmya/hara... · Posted by u/smsowmya
Kurimo commented on Faith in fake Apple Watch news industry falls 71% computerworld.com/article... · Posted by u/arielweisberg
This is a very poorly worded headline.
Also, the author of this article criticizes the original article for playing fast and loose with facts. But then takes an unsubstantiated claim from the CEO of the company in question as evidence that the Apple Watch is doing great. Maybe not the best source for such information. I've never heard a CEO say "Sales are not what we hoped" without raw data forcing that concession out of him/her.
Kurimo commented on Listen to Your Customers, They’ll Tell You What to Build blog.tailwindapp.com/list... · Posted by u/chinedufn
I agree that doing more listening than speaking when talking to customers is important.
It's also important to remember that customers will tell you they want features they they won't actually use or pay for. So it's necessary to develop an understanding of what your customers do and what problems they're trying to solve.
This often helps more than just listening to features they say they want. If your customers aren't in the business of building products (especially software products), their ability to ask for features is limited by the fact that if you're not an expert in how the product is created, it is difficult or impossible to know what features might be easy to add, and which ones are difficult.
It's even likely that you can add features that your customers that your customers don't even know are possible. In this case, they won't be able to ask for those features, or anything like them. As an expert (in software, or any other specialized product development field), taking the time to really understand your customers, the problems they face, and the jobs they are trying to accomplish can help you come up with new features and products that actually amaze your your customers and attract new ones.
I agree with most of your points.
I would add that when you put a person in a position that you have asked them for input, they will feel pressured to give SOME kind of input, whether or not it is actually warranted. You're kind of setting them up to give input in the same way you might set someone up to tell a joke, they feel pressured to fill that space with SOMETHING.
Most of the time when I have built features that came from customers, it ends up being the least used feature of a particular update cycle. Sometimes to the point that we have to reverse or highly modify it later. The reason your customer isn't in the business of making the thing you're making, is because they have no idea how to make that thing.
If you ask a person what they want out of a new Ford car, they are not going to say "Brake pads with a higher durability for longer use," they are going to say "More cupholders wouldn't hurt, and maybe you could offer it in magenta?"
See also "The Bike Shed Problem": http://bikeshed.org/
Kurimo commented on How Stable Are Democracies? ‘Warning Signs Are Flashing Red’ nytimes.com/2016/11/29/wo... · Posted by u/jostylr
You don't always get to have a side at all. If you are a member of a minority population, or if your political orientation is just a little bit too far outside the mainstream, you may never get a chance to vote for any candidate who represents your needs. There's that old saw about two wolves and a lamb voting on dinner; just because a political system is democratic doesn't mean it is necessarily just, or that participation would actually produce meaningful results. Abandoning the system and working around it can be the rational choice.
If you live in a society that does not hear your voice, there are ways to make that voice heard as long as the society remains free. Eventually, over time, that voice might resonate with others. Black people were not a majority when integration happened (not saying it solved all problems, but it was a step). But their plea for fairer treatment resonated with the majority and progress was made.
As soon as you abandon democracy because the majority doesn't represent you, you are surrendering your ability to be heard. When you throw out democracy, the majority doesn't disappear and become magically replaced with someone who does represent you. In most cases, a strongman with the backing of extremists in the military will end up filling that vacuum. And that person won't care about anybody's voices except his or her own.
Kurimo commented on How Stable Are Democracies? ‘Warning Signs Are Flashing Red’ nytimes.com/2016/11/29/wo... · Posted by u/jostylr
Democracy doesn't feel like democracy when people with your culture (political party, part of the country, etc.) lose power. When some other culture is running the show and antagonizing you every day, non-democratic solutions can look pretty appealing. You might be willing to do anything to fix the situation. You justify it, because the alternative is WRONG in your mind.
BTW, this applies to both sides. Don't imagine that one culture in your country -- especially your own -- is immune to this sort of thinking.
Certainly, it seems appealing and, worse, people feel disenfranchised when they see polls that show the majority of people support something while the government rejects it (because people of a higher economic class or special interest side against it). This leads to them not participating in the system, which leads to further feelings of disenfranchisement. It is a negative feedback loop.
Democracy only works if people actively participate and make their voices heard. Not voting, campaigning, etc. only leads to further entrenchment of the lobbyist nightmare.
Further, rejecting democracy because "your side lost" is idiotic. When your side loses in a democracy, you get to try again in however many years when hopefully your side's arguments bear out in the negative impact of actions of the other side. When your side loses in a military dictatorship, if you try again, you go to jail.
Kurimo commented on To-Do Lists Are Not the Answer to Getting Things Done medium.com/personal-growt... · Posted by u/ingve
The same old thing peope talk about thousands of time. This is just a marketing article to promote the $59 seminar: https://www.bewaymoreproductive.com
Came to the comments to post this, so thanks for beating me to it.
Any time someone says they have "the secret," they are selling you something. And more often than not, there's a good amount of snake oil in that bottle.
Kurimo commented on Silicon Valley Helped Create Trump, and That’s Bad for It mobile.nytimes.com/2016/1... · Posted by u/CapitalistCartr
Personally, I am concerned around this new mantra to eliminate fake news. Who are the gatekeepers of said truthfulness. Now I am not arguing that fake news does not abound on the Internet but a call to arms for companies to eliminate "Fake" news sounds too close to censorship for my fancy.
Governments censor. Private institutions editorialize.
If the NYT chooses not to print an op-ed you send them, it is NOT censorship.
If the United States government forces the NYT not to print your op-ed, it IS censorship.
See the difference?
Kurimo commented on Post Virtual Reality Sadness medium.com/desk-of-van-sc... · Posted by u/prostoalex
I don't know that this is VR-specific.
I remember feeling like this after:
- Playing with MS Paint on Windows 3.1 for hours on end until my eyes burned when i was 8.
- Inhaling Lord of the Rings in about a week when i was 10.
- Playing Ocarina of Time for 12 hours a day as a young teen.
- Playing WoW in 100-hour weeks as an undergrad on summer break.
Agreed. This whole phenomenon was reported on widely after "Avatar" came out. News anchors gleefully reporting that people left the theater feeling depressed their world wasn't as fantastic as Avatar. More of "the kids aren't alright!" reporting they love to do to scare parents and elderly folks.
My solution: Move out of the big cities. I live in a small town in the countryside and my world is that fantastic.
Kurimo commented on How settling Mars could create a new human species nautil.us/issue/41/select... · Posted by u/rgun
Yes, and countries can, and do, remove themselves from treaties when they feel it is in their best interest. The most critical one in our time was the anti-ballistic missile treaty which the US withdrew from in 2001.
If a country felt they could control access to and maintain control over, a celestial body I could imagine them withdrawing from the treaty and claiming that body as their own.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/international/bush-pulls-o...
It's pretty hard to secure a border crossing in a country, let alone an entire planet.
Planets are noted for, among other things, being rather large.